


Come to the Sand Side (We Have Ramen)

by PitchBlackMagpie



Category: Naruto
Genre: Adopted Sibling Relationship, Gen, M/M, Multi, Naruto/Gaara/Temari/Kankurou sibling relationship - Freeform, Other, Sibling Bonding, friendship fic, suna-nin!Naruto, the Sand Siblings are sneaky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-18
Updated: 2018-01-08
Packaged: 2018-05-27 12:44:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 53,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6285016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PitchBlackMagpie/pseuds/PitchBlackMagpie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Naruto and Gaara hit it off after the chuunin exams, and a slight twist of fate leaves Naruto questioning whether he really has a place in Konoha or not. Gaara comes to miss his company, and comes up with a plan- a plan to lure Naruto to pledge his loyalties to Suna, where, according to the Sand Siblings, he really belongs. Featuring eventual Suna-nin!Naruto.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Same Old Story

Naruto sighed.

His team had recently returned from Wave, and Sasuke and Sakura were chipper enough. He, however, felt exhausted. It wasn't so much that he faked his personality as he just exaggerated it. Sure, he could be loud sometimes, but he'd gotten so used to being over the top in the Academy to get attention he'd forgotten to tone it down.

He'd grown up thinking that was the only way to get people to acknowledge him. By being an idiot. And, well, he could be an idiot sometimes (and let's be honest, he did a lot of idiotic things…very often), but he wasn't always an idiot. This was the main distinction that people missed between how he acted and how they thought he acted.

He'd tried making friends with Sasuke and Sakura. He'd even pretended not to know how to climb trees, even though Iruka had taught him that a long time ago (technically he wasn't supposed to, since it was a genin exercise and not an Academy student exercise, but Iruka couldn't resist Naruto's puppy dog eyes), just so Sasuke wouldn't feel competitive or inferior (which backfired anyway). Unfortunately, the Uchiha was just as frigid as ever and Sakura…

He was pretty sure she hated him more than some of the villagers. Okay, that was exaggerating- as long as he didn't tick her off, she was pleasant enough to be around. It was just that he always asked her to lunch before he asked Sasuke (he always said no) and she always said no. He didn't have a crush on her anymore- he was just asking as friends. She always thought he was asking her on dates.

Maybe, he thought, he should try being a tad more normal. Perhaps they associated him too greatly with the loud prankster from their Academy days.

He'd showed up to the team meeting in a pair of old forest-green shorts that flared at the ends and unfortunately emphasized how utterly skinny his legs were and a black T-shirt. It had a chibi raccoon on it, in the midst of stealing a bunch of ramen from a shop. Iruka had gotten it for one of his birthdays; clothes were usually the chuunin's go-to gift because Naruto never bought any for himself. It wasn't that people didn't allow him in their stores or anything like that; he was just lazy. Or perhaps had no motivation to go buy things. He felt there was a difference there, although he thought it was only important in reference to Naras.

"Wow, Naruto, show up to the meeting dressed like a slob," said Sakura, giving him a derisive look. Sasuke snorted, possibly in amusement, but ignored them. Kakashi had told them they wouldn't be training that day, so Naruto hadn't seen an issue with wearing casual clothes.

"So," Naruto began awkwardly, clearing his throat. "Do you guys want to go for ramen after this?"

"Like me or Sasuke-kun would want to go watch you wolf down ramen," Sakura wrinkled her nose. He was pretty messy with it. Naruto deflated slightly, confidence wavering.

"Want to…want to train?" he asked hopefully. He wasn't as good with taijutsu as Sasuke, but he was better than he let on, and he knew what 'form' was. Likewise, he knew some lower-ranked jutsu- like a fire type he used to light campfires- that he never told anyone about. Sasuke could get jealous, even though he could light the whole forest on fire if he wanted. He'd gotten them from the public jutsu library. No other genin seemed to go there very often. Then again, it was dead most of the time, and it was tiny, with little foot traffic, with no jutsu above C-rank, and he only knew it was there because Iruka had taken him. He thought of it as a chuunin hangout with only a few chuunin ever visiting. Like a less-cool version of the jounin station…well, a lot less cool.

Sasuke finally opened his eyes. He squinted at him, as if he could tell something was off today, and Naruto started to sweat. "Hmm," he said, closing his eyes again.

"We're waiting for Kakashi-sensei," Sakura supplied, and Naruto sighed.

It was then their sensei did actually appear, and handed them chuunin exam forms. Naruto felt woefully underprepared for that.

His teammates took off to do…whatever it was that they did in their spare time. Naruto shrugged, decided to wander around town, and headed in the general direction of Ichiraku's. Konohamaru waylaid him on the way, and he agreed to play ninja with him- he'd been a brat at first, but he was a nice kid.

That was how he had ultimately ended up there, sighing, as a dude with makeup shook Konohamaru back and forth.

"Excuse me," he started, restraining the need to yell at the guy and get his attention. People paid him no mind if he didn't just scream at them.

"Excuse me," he tried again when neither he nor the girl with the fan noticed him. "Excuse me?"

Irritation growing, he raised his voice. "EXCUSE. ME." If he'd have had longer hair like his mother's, it would have mimicked the way hers separated into nine portions when she was enraged.

The guy jumped, turning to look at him and dropping the kid. "What?"

A tick grew on Naruto's forehead. "I've been trying to get your attention for like five minutes."

"Ah." The shinobi looked him up and down. "Well, shorty, you're kind of unnoticeable."

Tell me about it, Naruto thought. "Anyway," he said, pointing to Konohamaru, "that's the Hokage's grandson." They both instantly paled. "Are you two here for the chuunin exams?"

"Y-yes," the girl replied, staring at him.

He stared back. "What?"

"Aren't you going to have us detained?" she asked, voice strained, staring at the headband he'd tied around his bicep. He'd taken it off his forehead; nowadays he just felt…detached from it, like his passion wasn't really there. Who could serve a village without passion for it? No, he still loved his village- he couldn't not love the Hidden Leaf. It was similar to when he played a new game for months on end and, though he was still crazy about it after those months, the excitement dulled and the raw passion seemed to fade.

"Why would I do that?" he asked with furrowed eyebrows.

"…because I was just…?" The male said.

Naruto shrugged. "Kono, you fine?"

"I'm fine," the boy huffed.

Naruto shrugged again. "It's all cool. Don't worry about it."

"Don't…worry…about it." The boy repeated, slowly, as if he was having trouble understanding what Naruto had just said. Naruto squinted, deciding it would be a bad idea to ask the guy if he was slow.

"I'm Naruto," Naruto said, sticking his hand out. Maybe he could make friends with these people. "Are you from Suna?"

"Yes," the boy replied, staring at his outstretched hand. Gosh, these people did a lot of staring, didn't they? "I'm Kankuro." Kankuro shook his hand, grip solid.

"I'm Temari," the girl said.

"It's nice to meet you," Naruto said, following Iruka's instructions for how to introduce one's self to the letter. "So, you're here for the exams. I hope you enjoy it here."

"Well this is strangely welcoming," Kankuro muttered, before addressing him again. "Yeah, we're here to make chuunin. Are you entering?"

"My team is," Naruto replied. "Where's your third member?"

Nervousness flitted across their faces. "Um, well-"

There was a puff of sand. A literal puff. Naruto jumped, staring at the boy who'd appeared in the space the sand had occupied with a dumbfounded look on his face. "Uh, hello?"

"Kankuro," the boy ignored him, "we didn't come to play games."

"R-right, Gaara, sorry about that," Kankuro rambled. "L-let's go." He threw Naruto a look.

"Hi, I'm Naruto," Naruto said, ignoring the look and sticking his hand out.

"Gaara" eyed him. "I couldn't care less," he said, turning his back.

Well he's a downer, Naruto thought, eyebrow twitching.

For a moment, he considered just leaving it, but then his mantra of I NEVER GIVE UP flashed through him and he marched after them. There was one thing he was, above all else: unbelievably stubborn.

He cut in front of the redhead and wheeled around, pointing a finger right at his nose. The boy jerked back, eyes widening a fraction, and Naruto steeled his voice. "You're in my village, so you should be polite! It's polite to give someone your name when they introduce themselves," he said matter-of-factly.

Kankuro and Temari stared at him in terror.

"…I'll start you off," Naruto said with a grin. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto…and you are? This is where you say your name."

"…Gaara of the Desert."

"Nice to meet you, Gaara of the Desert. Since you guys are in my village, it's only polite to treat new friends. Does anyone like ramen?"

* * *

 

Naruto didn't know why Kankuro was sweating so much. Maybe it was the black jumpsuit he was wearing? He told him as much, but he was laughed off.

"You're not going to eat?" he asked Gaara with a frown. The boy hadn't touched his food.

Gaara turned his very intense eyes to him, and Naruto got the feeling he was irritating him. Eheheheh.

He ripped Gaara's chopsticks apart for him, and Kankuro audibly gulped. "Hold 'em like this," Naruto instructed, frowning again when Gaara made no move to take them. So he grabbed the pale boy's hand and made him hold them.

Gaara stared down at his hand before narrowing his eyes in something like a scowl. "I am going to-"

"Naruto!"

Naruto flinched, dropping his own chopsticks. Darn, when had he become so flinchy when it came to Sakura's yelling?

"Where've you been?" she thundered, stomping up and bashing him over the head. He winced, rubbing the offended area, feeling embarrassment rise in his gut.

"…here?" he ventured. "I told you I was getting ramen."

She noticed the other shinobi in the stall. "Oh, hello," she said, demeanor shifting instantly. "Who're you?"

Temari frowned at her and looked back to Naruto, who'd retreated and given Gaara his personal space back, fiddling with his ramen. "What's it to you?"

She caught sight of their headbands and frowned. "Hey, hold on," she said, placing her hands on her hips. "You're from the Village Hidden in the Sand! We're allies, but you can't be here without permission. State your purpose!" she demanded, as if a genin walking up to foreigners and demanding identification was completely appropriate. Well, Naruto had to admire her guts.

Naruto sunk down a little bit, lifting one of the pieces of food he was named for out of his bowl and examining it. Man, even he knew better. Being polite to allied ninja was one of the things Iruka had taught him. "International incidents" were very, very bad- there was a reason he only ever pranked Konoha shinobi.

"We're here for the chuunin exams, moron," Temari said shortly, holding up her passport.

"O-oh," Sakura replied.

Naruto's ears burned. He looked up, only to find Gaara staring at him. "What?" he mouthed, trying not to draw Sakura's attention.

Oblivious as he was, he didn't hear the sand shifting in Gaara's gourd, but Kankuro did, and he stood up, hastily wiping his mouth. "Well, we better be going, the exams start soon," he said.

"That's right," Temari agreed.

"Right." Sakura said awkwardly. She spotted Naruto, and dragged him up by the ear. "Come on, Naruto."

"Coming," Naruto said absently, in a 'coming, dear' way, waving at Gaara as she pulled him into the street. There was something about the boy that seemed familiar, even if he was aloof and ignored him a lot.

"What were you thinking, huh Naruto? Having ramen with the people who we'll have to fight against! Huh!" Sakura sighed and shook her head with consternation and concern. "I'm gonna kill you for teaching Konohamaru that jutsu," she scowled.

Naruto shrugged and put on his brightest grin. "Sorry Sakura-chan. Do you want to go next time?" So that was why she'd come and found him. He couldn't help it if that jutsu was effective- even the old man had fallen victim to it.

"Hmph! No chance!"

He shrugged again. Oh well.

 


	2. Ripples in the Pond

Naruto woke bright and early, watering his plants before he got dressed. He decided to go with the same shirt, which he'd soaked in water and hung up to dry the night before. His apartment's floor was cold as he padded across it barefoot, and he shuddered as he slipped the shirt on- it was dry, but cool. Still, it felt good against the rising temperature of the Konoha summer. He just wished his landlord hadn't turned the heating off when he couldn't pay rent. It got cold during the night, and Naruto hated the cold. He could spend all day doing chores in triple-digit weather, but when it dipped into the seventies he was looking for a jacket.

He pulled his jumpsuit's jacket on over it and zipped it up halfway. He went with the same shorts, not wanting to go in his orange jumpsuit.

Sasuke and Sakura were waiting outside the Academy. "Jeez, Naruto, if you're late you'll drag the whole team down," Sakura scowled. He was five minutes early concerning the time they'd agreed to meet.

Naruto grinned and apologized. He could tell she was nervous, more nervous than she'd been even in Wave. She was fiddling with her skirt, brushing aside her hair; all her nervous tics he'd noticed.

He followed them inside, hoping this exam didn't turn into a total disaster.

* * *

 

This was a total disaster.

Naruto knew he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed when it came to book smarts. But he'd have thought even he could have answered at least ONE question. But no, he couldn't even begin to start answering one.

Maybe he was just an idiot.

"Y-you can look at my test, N-Naruto," Hinata whispered beside him.

He gave her a grin. "It's okay, Hinata. I don't want you to get in trouble. And besides, if I can't do it on my own, I don't deserve to go forward, right?"

"I-I guess…"

It was nice of her to offer. Naruto made a note to buy her a thank-you gift later.

Naruto started doodling. He was pretty much doomed at this point, so really, what did it matter? Maybe the scary proctor dude would pass him on his art skills.

* * *

 

As it turned out, it actually didn't matter at all.

Naruto let out a sigh of relief as they ran inside the Forest of Death. He'd seen Team Gaara at the gates, and waved, but gotten ignored…again.

Written tests were really not his strong point.

Still, as long as they could get a scroll, it would be smooth sailing from there on out.

Right? _Right_.

* * *

 

Disappointment festered in Naruto's chest. Kakashi had gone off to handle whatever weird situation was going on with Sasuke and the mark on his neck, so he wasn't there to watch his fight with Kiba. Sakura wasn't advancing, which he honestly wasn't surprised at, even if he felt bad for thinking it. However, she'd matured a bit in the Forest, and managed to knock Ino out. (He had expected more from someone in a clan, too, but he felt a little bad for thinking that as well.)

"This'll be easy," Kiba was saying, "I'm fighting the dead-last!"

…was that seriously all anyone thought of him?

"Get ready, Naruto," Kiba grinned.

Could Akamaru fight? Why else would he be allowed in the match? Was he some sort of summon like Kakashi's dogs? Maybe he should try to separate them…

"Match start!"

Kiba's speed was impressive. He shot across the arena like a rocket, and Naruto immediately noticed that Akamaru could keep up. Normal dogs couldn't do that. He had to have been some sort of sidekick or something.

"Kage bunshin no jutsu!"

There were fifty of him now, all surrounding Kiba.

"W-what?" he asked, stopping mid-dash.

The Narutos all performed an identical set of hand-seals. It was the campfire jutsu, except he was going to put a lot more chakra into it this time. Way more.

Then the arena was on fire. If anyone else had attempted that, they'd have set their _arms_ on fire as well. As it was, his throat and chest felt like they were burning, so he didn't suppose he should attempt that again.

Naruto hadn't meant for that to happen.

"Gaahh!" Both he and Kiba ended up trying to dodge the flames, running around the arena like maniacs. Or morons; either one applied.

"Naruto! What did you do!"

"Sorry!"

"I thought Sasuke was the one who burned things!"

They ended up in a tangle in the midst of it, which devolved into a brawl. Naruto came out on top- he was smaller and thinner, and slipped out of Kiba's grip easily.

Plus he'd been in quite a few brawls, most of them in alleys and empty training areas when the Academy teachers had their backs turned.

* * *

 

Gaara was frightening.

As guilty as it made him, though, Naruto still couldn't look at the Suna shinobi with fear or anger, even as he ascended the steps and turned to stare at him. Sure, there was some disapproval in his gaze, and he felt bad for Lee, but his eyes were clear, questioning, curious as ever.

Gaara stared at him, and then he scowled and stormed away.

Naruto wondered what went on in the guy's head. He knew from personal experience that people weren't just born that way (well…Sasuke probably was born an uptight teme).

* * *

 

Of course Kakashi dumped him on Ebisu.

Trying to ignore how jilted that made him feel, Naruto attempted to at least listen to the man's instructions.

It was going fine- frustrating and slow, but fine- until some pervert decided to knock Ebisu out.

"Hey!" he shouted, fists clenched. "Pervert!"

"Eh?" The old guy looked over his shoulder, glaring. "Leave me alone, brat, I'm researching."

Twitching, Naruto pointed at him. "You knocked out my sensei and set back my training," he said. "If you don't pay me back somehow I'll scream and tell all those women you're here! Then they'll beat you up!"

"W-wait a second now," the man said, whipping around. "What do you want? Candy? Money?"

Naruto frowned. "Training."

"Yeah, well, I can't give you that."

Naruto squinted. "You look kind of like a shinobi, plus you're really old. Can't you train me?"

"Hmph! Jiraiya the Toad Sage doesn't train just anyone!"

"Jer-ray-ya the what?" Naruto completely butchered the man's name. "Look, I don't care who you are. Just train me or find someone to train me."

"What do you even need training for?" Jiraiya snorted.

Naruto stared. "I'm in the chuunin exams," he said. At Jiraiya's blank look, he elaborated, "And I'm kind of a pathetic loser right now?"

Something shifted in the man's expression. "Well, I can't say I disagree, but you should have some self-confidence, brat, no one'll want a pupil with that attitude."

"Yeah, that's what people tell me," Naruto sighed. When he'd been loud and boisterous and confident, he'd been told no one would like the attitude. When he was confident and trying to be normal and humble, he'd been told no one would want him.

Now even admitting he was a loser made people less likely to want him around, too? He couldn't win. That was just… annoying. He faintly wondered if this was what it was like to be Sasuke when Sakura was in a particularly fangirlish mood.

"Whatever, ero-sennin. Go back to your perving," Naruto scoffed. He toed Ebisu, but there was no response.

Even if the guy was starting to look a little guilty, Naruto didn't have the energy to stick around and wheedle him down; he stormed off towards his apartment to find his plantain.

* * *

 

His plantain was wilting.

Naruto stared at the pot in his hands, wrinkling his nose. He hadn't had a plant wilt in almost two years. As a gardener, he felt indignant.

He sat on the edge of his roof, even though he should've been training or finding a new trainer. Mary- the plantain- had always been a friend, as he infused its leaves into cheap oil to heal his bruises and talked to her when he felt lonely.

"I don't get it, Mary," he said. "If I try and figure stuff out on my own, I don't know where to start and people tell me I'm hotheaded and don't take instruction and don't listen to people who know more than I do. Jiji always tells me I should ask people for help but I've been asking people for help and no one will help me." His forehead crinkled in frustration. "All the adults act like they know so much more than I do and then they don't even like- give me any of what they know. How can I learn what they know if I don't know what they know?" He looked into the distance with a confused stare. "My stomach hurts." The plant didn't respond to this seemingly random interjection.

"That old pervert was right," he muttered. "No one's ever gonna want me as a student. He didn't, Kakashi-sensei didn't, Ebisu didn't, Mizuki didn't, Mana-sensei sure didn't, she quit her job. And Mizuki tried to kill me. Iruka-sensei's the only one who tried to teach me," he continued, starting to feel more and more depressed as he went on. "…I'm just a freak no one wants."

He'd been mostly keeping it together until he admitted it out loud, upon which tears started to leak from his eyes and roll down his cheeks. A vivid memory materialized, of a time he'd had claws and fangs and gone after someone who ended up dead anyway but taught him to always protect his precious people.

"…I'm just a freak with a monster in his head that no one wants."

He looked down. Mary was still wilting. Maybe it was her time to say goodbye, just like Haku.

"Goodbye, Mary," he said morosely, extending his arms and dropping the pot, watching it until it shattered on the street below him. He stared at it until his tears dried, reaching up to wipe his face with his sleeve. The heavy feeling in his chest was gone, and the whole thing had felt therapeutic (if a bit morbid, to anyone else); a grin tugged at his lips. "There. I feel better no…" He trailed off.

There was an eyeball right beside him.

Naruto stared at it.

The eye stared back.

Naruto stared.

The eye stared back.

A scream loud enough to reach the surrounding streets escaped Naruto's mouth as he scrambled up and sprinted away. "AAAAAAH! There's an eye eye _eye eye eye eye_ -"

* * *

 

Naruto stood with his hands on his knees in the street, panting. He'd run halfway across town, ending up in a loop back at Ichiraku's. The whole time he'd felt like someone was watching him.

"You brat!"

He jumped, whirled around, and found the old pervert skidding to a stop behind him, breathing heavier than normal but not panting yet. "I've been chasing you for ten minutes!" Jiraiya raged. He pointed wildly at him. "What the hell?!"

Naruto thought back and vaguely remembered someone yelling for him to slow down. "Oh, was that you yelling at me?"

A tick grew on Jiraiya's forehead. "Yes. The hell'd you freak out and start screaming 'I' over and over for?"

"I saw an eye," Naruto told him, doing nothing to ease the confusion on the man's face.

"Was it in a mirror?" Jiraiya asked.

Naruto scowled. "No! I'm not stupid!"

"Could've fooled me!"

"You're the stupid one!"

"How dare you call Jiraiya, Toad Sage extraordinaire, one of the strongest shinobi of your village, one of the three legendary sannin, stupid!"

The man's routine was starting to freak Naruto out. How many times had he practiced the whole thing? "Why were you following me, huh?" he yelled, pointing back at him. "Are you a pervert like the other one?!"

"What?" Jiraiya's brow creased. He was still posing.

"The Orochi-snake-guy sannin or whatever he was." Naruto wrinkled his nose. "He was gross. His neck was this long." He held out his arms as far as they could go. "He gave Sasuke a weird hickey! His giant snake swallowed me and he did something weird to my stomach!"

Jiraiya's face spasmed. "What?! Why didn't you tell anyone?!" he shrieked.

Naruto stared at him in confusion. "Why would I? Sasuke's the one who got a weird hickey from him."

Jiraiya facepalmed.

* * *

 

Naruto snapped his chopsticks apart, ready to dig in, when he felt a presence behind him. He swiveled in his chair, blinking in surprise when he found Gaara behind him, looking as impassive as ever. "Uh, hey, Gaara. What's up?"

Gaara narrowed his eyes at him. "What are you?"

"…a human?" Naruto started to sweat. Was this some deep philosophical question he'd just failed? Kami, he hated those.

"Why do you insist on bothering me?" Gaara asked. Naruto was really starting to wonder why the guy was so weird. "Mother wishes for me to kill you."

Oh-kay! "Um…" Just ignore it. "Cuz…we're…friends?"

"Friends," Gaara repeated. Maybe he was part parrot. Naruto imagined a parrot version of Gaara, love on its head, repeating 'friends' over and over again.

"Yeah…" Naruto said lamely. "Unless you just don't want to be."

The murderous stare was back. "I do not want to be your 'friend'," Gaara growled, whipping around and storming back outside.

After a moment, Naruto said quietly after him, "…okay."

* * *

 

"This is hopeless," Naruto growled, staring at the tadpole in front of him.

Jiraiya dragged a hand down his face. "I don't get it," he complained. "You have the chakra for this. Why can't you summon anything larger than a tadpole?!"

Naruto felt guilty. The ero-sennin had undone whatever weird thing Orochimaru had done to him and even agreed to train him, and he was already messing up. He was probably going to give up like every other Academy teacher he'd ever had besides Iruka. And, well, Mizuki. He hoped Jiraiya didn't try to stab him with a giant shuriken.

"Oh, come on," Jiraiya complained, rubbing his eyes. "Quit making that- that- FACE."

"What _face_?" Naruto asked as he scowled.

"The _face_ ," Jiraiya glared.

Naruto's eyebrow started twitching. "Whatever, ero-sennin." He rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Okay," Jiraiya sighed, settling cross-legged on the ground. "What control exercises do you know besides what that Ebisu guy was teaching you?"

"Tree-walking," Naruto replied.

Jiraiya waited. Naruto stared. "…that's it?" Jiraiya asked, mouth open in a frown.

Naruto shrugged.

Jiraiya groaned, dragging a hand down his face. "Never mind. We're starting over from the ground up."

* * *

 

Naruto got the feeling Jiraiya wasn't going to have any hair left by the rate he was pulling it out. He'd taken one look at his taijutsu and started banging his head into a tree. His ninjutsu was the only area the man felt wasn't totally hopeless.

It'd been three weeks, and among other things, Jiraiya had given him a crash course on proper taijutsu instead of freestyle brawling, taught him how to dispel a genjutsu (it had been like pulling teeth- in fact, Naruto'd had a stuck baby tooth pulled once and it had been less excruciating), and taught him how to use basic storage seals. Very basic. Fuinjutsu was extremely confusing and the sannin grumbled he'd have to take several years to teach him the beginner's stuff.

Jiraiya's style of hand-to-hand was different than Kakashi-sensei's or Sasuke's. Theirs were similar in that they went for quick strikes, utilizing speed and carefully monitoring how much power they used behind their blows. Jiraiya's stance was lower, harder to knock aside, utilized more judo throws and holds. Where Sasuke might take someone out in one powerful blow, Jiraiya would use a combination with the force dispersed while keeping up a defense. Naruto, of course, was a shrimp, and they had to alter it slightly for him, working to increase his staying power and striking ability.

They'd tried the toad summoning two weeks in. Naruto had managed to summon a toad the size of a horse, which made him run around the clearing cheering. Still…he wanted to go bigger. Did the toads have a boss toad like the giant snake?

Which is why he ended up turning to his tenant for assistance.

"Go away," the beast grumbled, not looking up from his nap.

"Please?" Naruto whined, standing outside the cage with his hands clasped together. "Just this once! I wanna see the boss toad!"

One of the Kyuubi's eyes opened. "Do you realize what I am? I am not your magic genie here to help you with every problem," he growled. "If I could get out of this cage, I would rip you to pieces."

"…okay, but can I have some chakra," Naruto pouted.

"UGH. Fine. If it'll make you go away."

"Naruto?" Jiraiya asked, squinting. The boy had completely zoned out.

"Yeah!" he suddenly yelled, biting his thumb and slamming his hand to the ground after running through the hand seals. "Kuchiyose no jutsu!"

"Eh-?!"

The surrounding trees bent and snapped under the weight of the toad Naruto had summoned. A puff of smoke shot into the air from the toad's pipe, and Jiraiya cursed, quickly gaining his balance as the ground disappeared out from under them.

"Who summoned me?" Gamabunta boomed. "Jiraiya? Is that you, you brat!"

"Hah-hah!" Naruto cackled. "He called you a brat!"

Jiraiya rubbed his forehead.

* * *

 

"It's 'Katon: Gamayu Endan', not 'Gananu Endun."

"Katon: Gamanu Endon?"

A heavy sigh.

* * *

 

Naruto frowned. Why was Sasuke late? Would it be better that way? He really didn't want Gaara to crush him… or to end up having to choose between cheering for Sasuke or cheering for Gaara. He never really took it to heart when people refused to be his friend. Eventually, they would…he would wheedle them down.

"…And that is why you will never be able to defeat me," Neji was saying. Naruto had zoned out for most of the monologue, but he got the gist of it: his dad died, a seal on the forehead, the Main Branch was full of jerks.

"Okay," he sighed. "I'll prove to you that just because I'm the dead last doesn't mean I can't beat you. Let's go!"

Naruto had to admit, Neji was on a whole other level when it came to hand-to-hand, but he was doing vastly better than he would have a month ago. He was putting up a decent fight, although he tried to keep a distance with his clones, when it came down to getting up close and personal. Neji had gotten several hits in on him that made his body feel weird, but he lived by the motto "Ignore it, and it will go away."

Besides, the sheer amount of Naruto's he could make gave him the advantage. They were wearing each other down, and the crowd was silent. Naruto felt triumphant- they hadn't expected him to last two minutes against Neji, but their fight was going on twenty minutes.

Apparently his not-dead-last-ness had sent Neji into a premature mid-life crisis, as he started up another monologue, and Naruto took the opportunity to smash his fist into the Hyuuga's nose with a hoot.

He felt bad when he saw he might have broken it. Neji had a nice face. He didn't want him to be disfigured. Jiraiya had taught him to punch pretty hard.

"Ggh!" Neji made an inelegant noise, stumbling back while holding his gushing nose. "Why you-"

"Look, I don't care if you have a mid-life crisis," Naruto said, making the boy's eyebrows draw together in confusion. "I care that you put Hinata in the hospital! That was a low move! You're acting like a brat," he accused, pointing.

Neji just stared at him. " _I'm_ the one acting like a brat," he said, as if to confirm what Naruto had said.

"Yeah." Naruto nodded. A tiger hand seal later, five of him were charging, only to be blown back by Neji's rotation.

Except all of them dispelled.

"What?!" Neji didn't get another word out. A fist crashed up through the ground and caught him in the chin, knocking him into the air. Naruto felt a sense of triumph course through him when he saw the stunned look on his face.

As they took Neji away on a stretcher, he looked around hopefully for Kakashi before sighing and deflating. He hadn't even seen his fight. Sakura wasn't even cheering, just staring down at him with a dumbfounded expression. He could feel eyes on his back, and when he looked up, found Gaara staring. Again. What was up with him?

He went back up to the stands, shoving Shikamaru into the arena on his way. He waved at Gaara, who glared back, and stared for a moment before sticking his tongue out and pulling down on his eyelid. He didn't stick around to see his reaction, rushing back to his seat while he snickered under his breath.

 


	3. Two Demon Holders Walk into an Exam

While Sasuke's and Gaara's match had been…weird, what with the ominous _something_ lurking in Gaara's sand orb, their battle in the forest was downright freaky.

He didn't quite know what he was kicking as it loomed over Sasuke's downed body, but it wasn't just Gaara anymore. Half his face had molded itself into the visage of a beast, and Naruto couldn't tell if this was a special Sand technique or if he was going off the rails.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura knelt at Sasuke's side as he struggled to get up. Naruto glanced back to make sure he wasn't dying, frowning when he saw the black marks all over his body. What the heck?

Still, Gaara looked to have undergone a worse 'transformation' than Sasuke. "Gaara?" he called tentatively. The other boy was practically frothing at the mouth. "I don't really understand what's happening, but you don't have to do this."

_"My father infused my body with the sand spirit, and as a result, I destroyed the life of the woman who gave birth to me. I was born a monster."_

Upon meeting Gaara in the hospital, he'd guessed he was…unstable…but this was too big for him to handle.

"Sakura?"

"Gr..what do you want?!" Sakura snapped, eyebrow twitching.

"Take care of Sasuke, okay? Neither of you can fight this guy. I'm the only one who can," he said solemnly.

"Like I'm letting you fight this guy- this guy alone!" Sasuke gasped out as he tried to stand.

"Sasuke, you need rest! Don't waste your strength," Sakura chastised. She hovered over him protectively, shooting Gaara nervous glances.

"It's you…" Naruto's attention snapped back to Gaara when he started to speak. "You're the one I couldn't kill. The one who tried to be my… _friend,_ " he finished in a sneer. Naruto could only guess what people who'd tried to be Gaara's 'friend' had tried to do. Even kids in the Academy had tried to get him killed, if it hadn't been for Iruka.

_If his only purpose has been to kill people all this time, how can I stop him without killing him?_

Naruto couldn't find an answer to that. Before he could do anything, Gaara shot past him, aiming for Sasuke. "Die, Sasuke Uchiha!"

"Gaara, stop!" he yelled, but he wasn't fast enough. He never seemed to be fast enough.

The claw that was Gaara's hand slammed Sakura into a tree, the impact jarring her into unconsciousness. Cursing, Naruto leapt down and grabbed Sasuke, setting him on a branch across from them. _Dammit. Dammit. Dammit. How am I supposed to save her?_

His eyes alighted on Gaara's form. One hand clung to his forehead, the obvious source of whatever pain he was in. Naruto felt so out of his element- all his life, he'd been the one people called monster. But now-

No, he still couldn't think of Gaara as a monster. There was only one answer…Gaara was just like him, but he let the monster within control him. Naruto didn't know how it was sealed into him, but his seal kept the Kyuubi behind a cage of gold that could never break if Naruto didn't let it.

He had to wake that guy up.

"What's the matter?" Gaara's voice was unsteady, gravelly, like the growl of an animal. "Weren't you about to run away?"

Was he willing to risk Sasuke and Sakura to help this guy?

"Sasuke-kun…Naruto…" Sakura mumbled in her sleep.

"I don't ever run away," he said, leaping across the gap in the branches to attack. The sand knocked him away like a fly, sending him crashing into a branch in front of Sasuke. He winced and rubbed his ribs. "Let her go! She doesn't have anything to do with this."

"What are they to you?" Gaara countered, pale green eyes bloodshot. "What are they to you that you would risk your life for them?"

Naruto paused before he said 'my friends'. He did consider them friends…however, he wasn't sure if they were quite the kind of friends that people like Shikamaru and Choji were. "They're my comrades," he said.

Even if their relationship was a little rocky, loyalty was something Naruto would never betray.

Gaara started to laugh. Wigged out, Naruto edged back, on guard. "So you'll fight for the sake of others?" Gaara snarled. "That's exactly why you can't win. Only those who fight for the sake of only themselves can achieve victory." Something in his eyes was questioning, through the madness. "Why do you not give up these worthless comrades and fight only for yourself?"

Sand began to cover every part of Gaara's body. The arm detached, leaving Sakura bound to the tree. The only part of the original Gaara Naruto could see was his shock of deep red hair. "If you don't take me down, you won't be able to free her. And you should hurry; with each passing second the sand will harden until it crushes her to death."

Naruto cursed again. _I have no choice, I need boss toad_. He bit his thumb. "Kuchiyose no jutsu!" he yelled.

Unfortunately, it seemed without the Kyuubi's help all he was getting was Gamakichi. "What the hell?! I didn't even get a bigger one?!"

"Oh, hey, Naruto!" the toad waved. "What's up?" He facepalmed.

"Sand shuriken!" Naruto squeaked at the abrupt attack, snatching Gamakichi into his arms and leaping blindly. He crashed into a tree, the toad tumbling out of his arms.

"Whoa! Who's this guy, Naruto?"

"He's…" Naruto trailed off. "Like me."

"Eh?" Gamakichi looked back and forth between the two of them. "I'm sure not seein' any similarities, boss."

"His eyes. I used to see them when I looked in the mirror," Naruto elaborated. _I hated everyone so much. I didn't understand why they hated me or why I even existed. Did Gaara feel the same way?_

When he'd found out why they hated him, it had made it even worse. He hadn't understood what he was, but he'd been kept from falling into the same trap Gaara had _. "Let's go for ramen, eh Naruto?"_

_"Yeah! Iruka-sensei!"_

Even if Sasuke was really annoying and couldn't decide if he was Naruto's friend or eternal rival, and Sakura spent more time crushing on said annoying friend than being Naruto's friend, and even if Kakashi tried to get him to eat vegetables (Naruto shuddered for a reason completely different than the battle he was participating in).

"I won't abandon them," he said, eyes narrowing into a glare. "Because even when I found out I had a demon inside me, I wasn't alone anymore because of them."

What would he have been like if he'd stayed in the hell that was his life before he'd met Iruka?

"That's why I can understand him."

"If you say so…" Gamakichi said, trailing off.

"What's the matter?" Gaara yelled. "Are you still afraid of me? Or are you still trying to think of a way to save your 'comrades'? Fool! Think only of yourself, love only yourself. That is the definition of strength."

"You're wrong," Naruto shouted, forming the tiger seal. "And I'll prove it to you!"

"Naruto…?" Sasuke asked, pushing himself up to his forearms.

"Kage bunshin no jutsu!" The forest was filled with smoke, sending Sasuke into a coughing fit. When he managed to get his eyes open, he gawked at the thousands of clones Naruto had summoned, all of them taking out a handful of shuriken. "Group one, go!"

It was almost… _creepy_ the way Naruto always referred to his clones as workers. Sakura had once chastised him for treating them like slaves. Every single one responded with a "Yes, boss!" and charged Gaara from the right, letting their shuriken fly. "Group two and three, go!" Group two came crashing down from above, and group three from the left.

Naruto dashed at Gaara from below, bouncing off his clones as pellets of sand flying with the speed of bullets waylaid him. He took out a handful of explosive tags, wrapping them around the handles of three kunai and holding them in his fist.

His 2K combination attack had sent Gaara flying into the air, completely open from below.

"Over here, raccoon-face!"

He jammed the bundle into the back of the creature, hoping in the back of his head he didn't end up killing him.

The sand tail snapped around and slammed into him, sending him hurtling through the air. He crashed into Sasuke, who seemed to have moved, and slumped to the ground, wincing. "You all right, Sasuke?"

"I'm fine," Sasuke wheezed. Naruto didn't believe him. He leapt to a branch across the forest, trying to get a better view of the raccoon construct.

The trees rumbled as his kunai exploded. A piece of shrapnel embedded itself in Naruto's wrist, but he hardly felt it, pumped up on adrenaline. "I won't lose…" He heard Gaara muttering. "I won't lose!"

Uh oh. He felt something ominous in the pit of his stomach, and with a cloud of smoke, the forest in front of him was filled with a large, dark shape, making his eyes go wide.

Crap. He hurriedly bit his thumb, willing the jutsu to work this time around. "Kuchiyose no jutsu!"

* * *

 

"Not you again," Gamabunta complained. "What do you want? Eh? Well would you look at that…Shukaku of the Sand."

"Whaddaya say?" Naruto said cheerfully. "Will you give me a hand here?"

Gamabunta breathed in a large puff of smoke from his pipe. "Nah," he said.

"WHAT?!" Naruto shrieked. "Come on! I need help here! Didn't you say you'd make me your henchman?!"

"Yeah, I did, but we haven't even sealed the deal over a cup of sake yet," the toad complained.

Naruto slapped his palm over his eyes and groaned. "Come on! I promise I'll drink with you later!"

"Come on, pops, don't be like that! Why not just help the kid out?" Gamakichi asked, plopping down on Naruto's head.

"Gamakichi? What are you doing here?"

"I had nothing else to do. I just came to visit!"

"You two are father and son?" Naruto asked with a sweatdrop.

"Yeah! And pops, that big lug over there was pickin' on me before!" Gamakichi exclaimed, pointing directly at Gaara.

"Was he, now?" Gamabunta asked in a tone that radiated 'I'm not happy'.

"Yeah! Naruto here saved me and went head to head with that guy! Interesting kid."

"Very well. You're officially one of my henchman now, kid. Sit tight."

Gamabunta dashed forward with little more warning. Naruto screamed in surprise, clambering for a foothold, and watched with wide eyes as the toad's blade cut through one of Gaara's arms. "How do you like that?!" the boss toad yelled.

 _Whoa…that was awesome,_ Naruto thought, gaping over his shoulder. "Hey, chief!" he whispered, wishing he knew where Gamabunta's ears were so he could whisper into one of them. "Don't go that way, okay? Sasuke and Sakura are in that direction. If we take the battle there, they're as good as dead!"

"Hmm," was all Gamabunta said in reply.

The two giants charged at one another, trading bullets made of wind and water. Now that he thought about it, a water jutsu would have helped him when he was fighting Gaara on the ground. Shukaku, though, was too slippery to stay within Gamabunta's grip.

"Kid, conjure me up something with fangs and claws. Fangs and claws, got it?" Gamabunta roared, barreling across the forest towards the Bijuu.

"Ah! Wait! Uh- uh- uh-" An idea popped into Naruto's head. "Transform!"

An orange claw burst forth from the smoke, latching onto the sand spirit's shoulder. Gamabunta, in the form of the Kyuubi, bit into Shukaku's neck, wrapping nine tails around his body. "Now, kid!" he yelled around the sand.

Naruto took a running leap off Gamabunta's forehead. "Wake the hell up!" he shouted, rearing back his fist and decking the boy wilting from the beast's forehead in the cheek.

"What? But I just got here!" Shukaku shrieked. _Man, this guy's even weirder than the fox is_.

Naruto skidded down the beast's side, making tracks in the sand. "Sand Coffin!" Gaara yelled, angered at having being awoken, raising one hand towards him. He jolted when he felt sand crawling up his legs, even as Gamabunta's tongue wrapped around him to shield him from projectiles coming from above.

"I will kill you this time," Gaara seethed. Naruto struggled to free his feet, giving him a wary stare. "I couldn't before…because of your damned eyes. But I will not cease to exist!"

Naruto was getting majorly pissed off. In the back of his mind, he thought of the beast before him traipsing through the forest, crushing Sasuke and Sakura beneath its feet before it moved on to the village- the village that hated him, but was full of innocent people. That Iruka and the old man lived in.

"That's enough!" he roared, struggling forward even as the sand wrapped around his body to stop him. "I've had it, pal!"

He slammed his forehead into Gaara's, causing the construct around them to crumble and crack until it was nothing more than sand in the wind.

* * *

Naruto couldn't help it. He was sniffling as he pulled himself towards Gaara by his chin, freely weeping as he reached halfway through the clearing towards him.

"Stay back!" Gaara yelled, jolting when he realized what Naruto was doing. "Stay away!"

"It's unbearable, isn't it?" Naruto asked, managing to get one arm in front of him. "The pain of being alone." Gaara's eyes widened a fractioned. "With no one in the whole world who needs you or cares about you. I know how it feels…I've felt it every day of my life. However…I found people, a few people, who made it worth it. I care more about them than I do myself. I won't let you hurt them."

"Why…?" Gaara stared at him with a gob-smacked expression. "Why would you do this for anyone but yourself?"

"Because," Naruto replied, voice trembling. "They saved me from becoming just like you."

Gaara turned away from him then, staring into the sky with a vacant look on his face. A moment later, Sasuke landed next to Naruto, with black marks all over his body. "That's enough, Naruto. Sakura's safe."

"That's a relief," Naruto muttered. He eyed Kankuro and Temari when they landed in front of Gaara, feeling some small sense of betrayal. He'd liked all of them, and they'd been there to invade his village.

"That's enough," Gaara said quietly. "We're leaving."

Naruto wished he could move. He watched Kankuro help Gaara up, the trio turning to face them.

Sasuke tensed, ready to go after them. "Don't, Sasuke," Naruto murmured, letting his forehead rest on his arm. "Let them go."

He could feel Sasuke giving him a look. Thankfully, he didn't move, and he felt the Suna nin leaving.

He hoped Gaara realized how lucky he was to have a brother and sister. Kami knew the boy deserved it with how horrible of a life he'd led.

He hoped Gaara got better.


	4. The Way the Story Changes

"Thank you so much for saving me, Sasuke!" Sakura said, holding the aforementioned boy's arm with both of her own.

Sasuke sighed for the thousandth time. He shook his head, almost in a 'what can you do?' way.

Naruto stood with his back to them, watching the rain fall. "Aren't you coming, Naruto?" Sakura asked curiously, peering at him.

He shrugged. "I'll be along."

"Okay. Make sure to come, all right?"

Naruto nodded. She sighed, but rather than in an annoyed way, as she had before the exams, there was a note of concern. She'd lightened up, at least, the tragedy making them all mature some.

Naruto stood on the edge of a rooftop, staring up at the Hokage Monument. The Sandaime's funeral had passed by, and he hadn't shed a single tear; shinobi weren't to show their emotions. He was still in the black attire he'd worn, even though his teammates had changed; it had been hours ago. They were heading to a meet-up with the other genin teams, to celebrate the Hokage's life and the lives of those who had also been lost.

Naruto didn't feel like going.

There was a sense of comradery between them all- war and battle tended to give them one- but he felt as if it had come too late. Now that they were showing even mild interest in being friendly (Team Kurenai even wanted to have a joint training session), he felt tired, worn out, stretched too thin. He knew the feeling would pass, and he wouldn't have been in a slump if not for the Hokage being gone.

The Old Man was dead. Naruto wished he could go ask for some advice.

He stood on that roof until the sun went down.

It was raining. He wasn't crying.

It was raining.

* * *

"Hey Granny."

A tick grew on Tsunade's forehead as she lowered the papers in her hand, eyeing Naruto over the top of them. "How many times have I told you not to call me that, Naruto?"

Naruto tossed her a grin, shrugging. "I lost count after twenty-seven."

Tsunade tossed the paperwork aside in frustration, glad for a distraction, at least. "What is it?" she sighed, and couldn't help the smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

"I wanted to give you a tip on how to get through all that paperwork in less than a day," he said, beaming as he pointed at the stacks on her desk. She straightened, practically going rigid, and listened attentively. "If you make a kage bunshin, the signature is identical, and it's an extension of yourself, so it's like you did it!"

For a moment, Tsunade sat there, stunned into silence. She glanced down at the paper in front of her, pen still in hand, and stared for a moment before looking back up at him. "Holy crap. Is that how sensei kept up with this?"

She knew she'd said the wrong thing when crushing guilt flashed across his face, gone as quickly as it had come. "Oh, uh, no," he said, coughing into his fist. "We had a game. I'd always tell him I had a way to do paperwork faster, cuz he was always doing it, and he'd try and guess it."

His eyes became vacant, remembering memories that hadn't happened too long before but seemed a lifetime away. "I didn't think he'd…you know…before I told him…should've just let him win sooner."

Tsunade sat there stewing in guilt for bringing it up, and he shrugged, grinning. "I wanted to tell you before yo- er." He realized, suddenly, it was probably both morbid and rude to say "before you kicked the bucket like the old man". "Before you got too bogged down by paperwork," he laughed.

"…thank you, Naruto," Tsunade said, wearing a pensive expression as he laughed and ran a hand through his hair.

Most of the time, his smiles were genuine, as he was very easy to amuse. All one had to do was mention getting ramen.

However, if she had not have been the cause of it, she wouldn't have been able to differentiate between his real smile and the fake one he wore.

* * *

Naruto missed many things about the Sandaime.

He missed their weekly Ichiraku's outing, the special meal he'd get on his birthday ( _all he could eat_ ), even when Sarutobi would chastise him for something like painting the Hokage monument.

He'd painted the Hokage monument and Tsunade had ordered her ANBU to clean it, yelling at him as he'd run away that he'd be taking D-ranks for a week. She hadn't even had them chase him! Where was the fun in that?

Needless to say, he was feeling quite nostalgic as he ambled through the street. He'd been turned away from helping rebuild, even though he could make a small army. Evidently he was just too 'unskilled', but he'd seen the scowl the construction manager had sent him when he thought Naruto wasn't looking.

Well, to be fair, he hadn't picked up a hammer in his life except to make pranks. That was probably for the best.

"Naruto!" He perked up when he heard Iruka calling his name. He wheeled around, beaming when he spotted the chuunin waving at him from down the road.

"What is it, Iruka-sensei?" he yelled.

"Hokage-sama would like to see you," Iruka replied, waving him towards himself. "Come on, I'll walk with you."

* * *

"I don't understand why you weren't promoted to chuunin," Tsunade said, frowning down at the papers in her hand. "It is true that before the third round, from the video tape of your fight with Kiba and team reports you weren't ready by a longshot. However, from the footage of your fight with that Hyuuga boy- Neji, was it?- and your role in fending off the invasion, not to mention how well you worked with Shizune against Kabuto- I would say you're worthy of moving up a rank." Naruto had gotten pretty furious over Kabuto's traitorous nature, but he'd waited until Shizune attacked with him, and they'd been able to fend him off until he'd gotten in a lucky-slash-dirty shot at Naruto's chest and taken down Shizune when she was forced to fight alone.

"Do you mean it, granny?" Naruto said, eyes shining.

"Yes. I've already filled out the paperwork," she said with a strange gleam in her eye. Beside her, Shizune frowned, and Naruto and Tsunade shared a sly smirk. She got up from her desk, crossing around it so she could hand him the flak vest in hand. "I expect you to take this seriously. You'll be taking missions by yourself from now on, and you won't have your team around to have your back. That means you can't go charging into everything without thinking. Do you understand?"

"I understand, granny. Iruka-sensei's going to give me a thirty-minute lecture, anyway." Tsunade made a note to ask about his relationship with Iruka. None of the other genin had even mentioned the man since she'd started to interact with them, but Naruto did every other conversation.

"All right, then. I have your first mission."

"Yes!" Naruto shrieked, pulling on the vest and jumping from foot to foot. "What is it?!"

"A diplomatic mission…to Sunagakure."

* * *

"Do you have rations? Extra kunai? Naruto, you don't want to run out. Where's your tantō? Don't give me that look, they're easier to lose than you would think. How much water do you have? It's scarce in the desert."

"Iruka-sensei, I'll be _fine_ ," Naruto groaned as the man rifled through his storage scrolls.

Sending him a frown, Iruka forced himself to close the scroll in his hand, taking a deep breath. "I know," he said, smiling. "I'm just worried. This is the first time you'll be leaving the village alone, you know. It's a long way to the Land of Wind."

The man adjusted the collar of Naruto's vest. "Be careful, you hear?" He grabbed Naruto's ear, eyes narrowing. "And if you do something stupid like paint the Kazekage tower…"

"I won't prank anyone!" Naruto exclaimed. "…except maybe Kankuro, but it'll be _fine_ , sensei, you'll see." That guy kind of deserved to wake up with pink hair.

Waving him off, Naruto trotted out the gate, calling over his shoulder. "See you in a few days!"

"Come back safely!" Iruka called through cupped hands. When Naruto left his sight, he sighed.

"…so Naruto of all people is a chuunin now?" Izumo asked, slumping onto the front desk.

Kotetsu rubbed his chin. "I guess with Iruka yabbering in your ear all the time some of it must stick."

Iruka's head snapped around, a gleam in his eye, and both chuunin squeaked, going rigid and pretending to be going through papers.

"Sensei?" Iruka turned around when Sakura called out to him, walking up with a confused expression. "Did Naruto just go somewhere?"

"Yes. He has a mission."

* * *

Naruto slid his tantō back into its sheath, dusting off his gloved hands. Iruka had given him a few lessons when he made chuunin, as well as said tantō- it'd come with a bright orange bow on the hilt. It was like having two birthdays. (Mostly because it was Iruka who'd gone to the trouble of getting him something, but having a new weapon to use was awesome too.)

One would think with how young he was using something when he was inexperienced with it could be dangerous (which it could be, if he was an idiot about it); however, he was still a shinobi, and had been handling sharp objects for years.

He tied the bandits who'd tried to rob him together and left them near the patrol route he'd been following. There were, of course, no actual _roads_ in the desert (unless one was talking about the roads that were nothing more than stones set in the sand leading to and from a nice little relaxation resort in the north, but Naruto's visit to that place was strictly off the record, dattebayo), but the nearer to Suna one strayed, there were routes marked on all official maps that had foot traffic. These were the paths that merchants used in and out of Wind Country.

He was a little bit nervous, the lack of Sakura's chatter and Sasuke's cool attitude and even Kakashi's quiet but comforting presence apparent to him. However, his confidence was bolstered by how easy it had been to take down the bandits and leave them where Suna ninja would find them.

The sun beat down on his back with an intensity he didn't find in Konoha, making a few beads of sweat drip from his brow and forcing him to conserve his energy. It dipped down to cold temperatures at night- Iruka's warning to bring wood and kindling had been well-deserved. However, he actually preferred the daytime, as he never sweated much and could take the heat (his record for staying in the hot springs was four and a half hours).

There were small towns and villages dotted around the Land of Wind, some marked on his map and some not. He only stopped at those he recognized, as Tsunade for some reason had been extremely adamant about him sticking to well-traveled public places. He didn't know why the granny was worried; he was a ninja, not a little kid.

He stopped in a small, nameless town close to Suna to take a short rest. He also needed to get some sand out of his sandals.

While he made puns in his head about said sandals, he veered into a restaurant that had nets over the windows and full curtains over the doors. Even so, some sand drifted in the door, stopping in a miniscule pile against the bar. While he was looking for a seat, the server noted his headband. "What'll ya have, kid?"

"Hm? Oh, I'm underage," Naruto replied.

The man snorted. "All right, but not many people enforce that outside the military villages. Old enough to kill, old enough to drink, that's what my grandpappy said," he said as he took a tray of something weird-looking from the kitchen behind him to a table.

 _Is he serving cactus?_ Naruto sat down with a sweatdrop near the wall, checking to make sure he still had Gama-chan. Iruka, during his forty-five minute lecture, had told him about pickpockets who stole the wallets of people just entering restaurants, so it would only be discovered after they'd eaten.

He'd also told him about thieves who tried to pickpocket someone just _after_ they'd eaten, leading to Naruto being on guard when someone tried to slip their hand into his pocket. Rather than make a scene, he stepped away, tripping the man up as he headed for the door.

"Hey! Kid!" Naruto turned around, irritation clear in his expression. The man was dressed in a hodge-podge of equipment from several different countries- none of the big five, however. Great. He wasn't just dealing with a pickpocket…he was dealing with a _ninja-wannabe_. Not rogue nin, not enlisted in the military, just militia types who formed village guards or went around pretending to be assassins or high-end thieves.

"What?" he asked, practically growling.

"You made me break this," the man said, holding up a pipe snapped in two. "Gonna pay for it?"

Naruto's eyebrow twitched. "Not really, since you were trying to pickpocket me. Let it go, pal." He whirled around and went for the door again, jerking when the thief caught his shoulder.

"Great," sighed the bartender, "attack a _real_ ninja, why don't you."

Naruto whipped around and grabbed the man's wrist, twisting it until he was unsteady on his feet and jabbing him in the back of his knee. With a grunt, the man went down, and Naruto flipped him into a chair before he hit the floor.

"Hey!" Two of his buddies leapt up from their seats and ran at him, almost making Naruto roll his eyes. He tripped the first and chopped the second in the neck, pausing when several more filed in the door.

Great. A ninja-wannabe _gang_.

"Get him, boys!"

Someone else called out, "Bar fight!"

* * *

Naruto was trying his best to avoid property damage, but the temptation to just Rasengan the crap out of these guys was overwhelming.

The bartender was still pouring drinks, used to these events, apparently, while the few other patrons had ducked under tables or just kept on eating.

"He's just a kid!" One of them had cried, just before Naruto socked him in the nose and tossed him to land relatively peacefully on a table, draped over it like cheap linen. Two of his buddies had tried to immobilize him so they could punch him freely, which ended rather badly for the first, who Naruto knocked out by punting him into the wall, and comparatively worse for the second, who ended up black and blue and purple all over.

Amid the pandemonium, the bartender slid a shot glass down the bar, laughing. "Here ya go, kid!"

Naruto grabbed it without thinking and threw it back, choking a little. He punched a wannabe in the eye, knocking him to the floor. "Thanks, I guess?" he yelled.

"Oi, you snot-nosed little bastard!" one of the men shouted, taking a running leap. A tad dizzy, Naruto wheeled around, only for the man to put on a surprise burst of speed and tackle him through the window.

Fortunately, they skidded in the sand, making a soft landing. Glass rained down on them, and Naruto clasped his eyes shut, raising one hand to block a punch the man aimed at him.

The wannabe slid a kunai out of a pouch at his waist, going for his throat. Naruto, at the angle he had, couldn't grab his wrist but with an awkward and ineffective hold, so he did as he had with Kabuto and let it pierce his palm, latching onto the man's fist as soon as he felt the hilt. He pressed down further, making blood pour onto Naruto's cheek.

" _You little-_ " The wannabe ninja was interrupted by a strand of sand winding around his neck, yanking him off the ground, and throwing him into a building.

Naruto jumped up in surprise, following the strand of sand through the air until he found where it'd come from. "Gaara!" he exclaimed. "What're you doing here?"

He'd undergone an outfit change, dressed in deep red from head to toe. Naruto wondered why he'd pick something that was seemingly hotter to wear. He must've been used to the heat, he thought.

For a moment, he was a little nervous- as the last time he'd seen Gaara he'd been on a murderous rampage- but he figured _surely_ Gaara wouldn't attack him now, with the relations between their villages so rocky, would he?

Evidently, Gaara saw something in his expression that alerted him to said nervousness, because he bowed at the waist. "Uzumaki," he said. "I wish to extend my apologies."

Naruto's brain short-circuited. "Eh? For what?" he asked, in complete confusion.

Gaara straightened, face blank. "My behavior towards you during the chuunin exams," he explained.

"Oh! You…you don't have to apologize. But, uh, if it makes you feel better, I accept it, I guess," Naruto rambled, scratching his cheek. _Wow, this guy's really mellowed out!_ "Uh, how are you?"

"I am well." Gaara was staring at him, and it was kind of freaking him out. "I see you were promoted."

Naruto grinned, showing off a pair of sharper-than-normal canines. "Yeah, the new Hokage did that. This is my first solo mission, actually. What're you doing?"

"I was sent to take care of a cluster of bandits that had taken root in this town. I see you have already done so. Thank you for your assistance." Gaara looked pointedly at one of the men dragging himself out of the tavern and feebly attempting to flee.

"Oh, I just got into a fight with one of them," Naruto laughed. "I didn't know they were bandits, although one tried to pickpocket me."

"I see. Do you require medical attention?"

"Medical attention?" Gaara's eyes lowered to his hand, and he jumped. "Oh, right! Naw, this is fine." He held up his hand, where the hole was already closing. "Hehe, I didn't get an epic sand defense, but my healing's pretty good!" He took a bandage from his pocket and started winding it around his palm.

Interest sparked in Gaara's gaze. "From your…" he trailed off. "Beast?"

"Yeah. I have the Kyuubi, the Nine-Tails. Yours is Shukaku, the One-Tails, right? That's what I heard him call himself, anyway, when he was screaming. He's kind of loony," Naruto chuckled.

"Yes, he is… 'loony'," Gaara agreed, wondering at the strangeness of the enigma that was Naruto Uzumaki. He had never been able to talk so freely and casually about the sand spirit with anyone, let alone someone who joked about the demon being insane. "I am returning to the village. I assume that is your destination as well?"

"Yep! C'mon, let's go together!"

* * *

Suna's Kazekage Tower looked a lot like Gaara's gourd. Naruto found himself liking the village itself- it felt secure, housed inside a canyon of cliffs with only one entrance, and it had charm to it, with the unique architecture and netting strewn over alleys and small enough streets to help alleviate the sun's effect. The mission center consisted of a long desk in an even longer room, with a set of four chuunin with a 'Foreign Missions' sign hanging overhead. Naruto crossed to that end of the room away from Gaara, stepping up to the desk that read 'B-rank'.

When the attendant examined the scroll he'd been assigned to deliver, he sent if off somewhere before handing Naruto what looked like a receipt with a large crest near the bottom left. Naruto thanked him and returned to the door, waiting for Gaara as he placed the receipt in the tube he'd transported the scroll in. Tsunade had told him it was information for a new treaty, not secretive and important enough to require an A-rank (and a jounin or chuunin squad) but also too important for genin.

Gaara was relatively quick. Naruto noted how the other shinobi gave him a wide berth, the attendant nervous as he finished his mission, and couldn't help but feel sympathetic. He knew perfectly well Gaara's actions had garnered that fear, but he also knew the depths of insanity his new friend had been trapped in.

"Are you required to leave right away?" Gaara asked him, and while Naruto wondered what that had to do with anything, he didn't dwell on it.

"Nah, I got here early anyway and I have a day or two to stay. I thought I might stay and look around just to see what the Sand village is like, I guess I'll leave on…Friday." Naruto glanced out the window. "Although…I've never been here before, so I have no idea where anything is," he laughed.

"If you would like, I will guide you," Gaara said in his usual monotone, but Naruto got a sense of something- hopeful?

"Really? Thanks a lot! Between you and me, I'm kinda glad I got a friend around here, and it's not all just full of strangers," he said in a theatrical whisper, leaning towards Gaara's ear while he shielded his face with one hand. "Know any good ramen joints?"

* * *

Naruto followed Gaara around like a lost puppy for two days, not wanting to spin his wheels in his hotel room or wander around aimlessly. Although Gaara himself didn't know any ramen joints, he was fully willing to follow _Naruto_ around like a (stoic) lost puppy as he tried every single one he could find. Naruto followed him on the D-ranks he took (mainly to keep his mission quota up, as he was reluctant to leave the village while Naruto was actually visiting) and, somewhere along the way, they started to exchange stories. The change in the boy's behavior and personality completely astounded Naruto.

"Yeah, trust me, you had it way worse than I did. There were a few incidents, but no one ever really tried anything. One time these kids tricked me into looking for valuables on dead bodies where hostile ninja were, but Iruka-sensei saved me when I got attacked."

A frown. "My sand acts as my constant guardian. You don't have anything like that; I do not bleed, you do. In a way any incident for you is much more dangerous than all of mine, for my sand always protected me."

* * *

_"Nah…we had this friend once, Yota. No one remembers him but me. He died, but before I knew about him they all thought I'd done something to him. I guess…I stopped really trying to genuinely make friends with them instead of just getting their attention after I saw them looking at me with those eyes…you know what I mean, don't you?"_

* * *

"I can't fully understand that, but I don't think the story adds up. Come on…haven't you looked at their pictures? Your mom and Yashamaru? Their eyes, look at their eyes. Do you really think either one of them hated you? I dunno…I don't care what anyone says. I don't think my mom hated me. I like to imagine her as a redhead, and I got my pranking habit from her."

* * *

_"This Iruka Umino is a good person. I am glad he was there to shield you."_

* * *

"Uzumaki-"

"You can call me Naruto, you know."

"…Naruto, I wish to…formally retract a statement-"

"You mean when you said you didn't want to be my friend in the ramen shop?"

"…how did-"

"I'm psychic."

"…"

"Wait, no, I'm not _really_ psychic, that's not a Kyuubi thing. Though that would be awesome if it was. I just mean- eh, never mind. Anyway, don't worry about it. If I weren't your friend would I _really_ be staying at your house? Your weirdly cool, temperature-defying house? Well, I suppose I _might_ anyway even if you still freaked me out a little, because we're _really_ freaking out Kankuro. Heheheh. Let's go prank him. Ooh, do you have any paint? I wanna paint that puppet of his like a geisha. Let's see him wake up to _that._ Do you think he'll scream? But anyway, you don't freak me out anymore."

* * *

When Naruto walked out of the cleft leading into Suna, waving over his shoulder, he came to a startling realization. He'd gotten so caught up in having a friend he could share every aspect of his life with, who would fully understand his experiences, who he didn't have to dance around the word Kyuubi with, to the point he didn't realize until he was leaving that, although there were certain aspects of Konoha he missed- Iruka, of course, the little pieces of home that were familiar, even the granny-

He really didn't want to leave.

* * *

"That Naruto kid was really good for you. I'm glad he was here. Bratty, though. He painted my puppet like a _geisha_ , and I'm still finding pink in my hair. Even with that, though…too bad he's not a Suna ninja."

"…"

"Gaara?"

"Yes, it is…too bad."


	5. Best-Laid Plans

When Gaara had first met that boy, he'd thought he was insignificant. An idiot, perhaps, but an insignificant idiot.

Even after he'd proven himself capable against the Hyuuga, he'd only had eyes for Sasuke Uchiha- he'd wanted to see his blood so badly he'd lost control of the monster sealed in his body.

Now, however, the situation was reversed. Gaara couldn't comprehend how he'd seen Naruto as insignificant and Sasuke as anything but. It wasn't that he hated Sasuke, or even disliked him- in fact, he was quite neutral- but there was only one Konohagakure shinobi he was really interested in getting to know beyond becoming comrades, and he had whiskers, not red eyes.

During their fight, Naruto had shown him there was another way- a better way. He'd shown him he could be even stronger if he valued the people around him instead of threatened them, reach a whole different level if he lived to protect others instead of himself. After that day, when he'd apologized to his siblings, he'd entered the normal shinobi forces, determined to make his way up from the bottom like Naruto was doing.

The boy was quite possibly his total opposite; or rather the other side of a coin. They'd gone through the same things, but come out of it completely different. Naruto was loud and boisterous, whereas Gaara was calm and quiet. Naruto was a ray of sunshine; Gaara was something like the light reflected off the water of the ocean from the full moon. Naruto always strove to earn others' respect despite how they thought of him, whereas before he'd beaten sense into Gaara, the Suna nin had considered their lives worth nothing and killed who he wished.

And Naruto acted as if he were always happy, even though Gaara was sure that he wasn't. He felt a tad guilty about it, but he'd spied on the boy weeks before, when he'd, strangely enough, opened up to one of his plants (and promptly took off screaming when he spotted Gaara's sand eye). They had known each other only for a few months, but he was also able to read him- and vice versa, as when Naruto had seen a shinobi avoid Gaara like the plague, he'd wrapped an arm over his shoulder and told him to cheer up; that they'd see him for his efforts and accept him someday. Gaara had had no physical reaction, yet Naruto had been able to tell he was discouraged.

Gaara wanted to be like Naruto.

He also wanted Naruto to be seen for his efforts and accepted; to himself be as happy as he tried to make others.

When he'd been in Gaara's home, it was as if a breath of fresh air had swept through it; Kankuro spent more time out of his room, fixing his puppets in the living area or at the dining table, whereas Temari sparred with their guest and they _all_ ended up playing a board game at Naruto's behest.

That was the first time Gaara had performed a bonding activity with his brother and sister since…probably his birth, frankly.

After yelling at the Uzumaki for raiding their fridge, Temari had sighed and started up a conversation. Somewhere along the line, nature affinities had come up, and she'd facepalmed when he'd had no idea what they even were. Gaara had frowned, wondering why Naruto's training had evidently been neglected; Temari had lit up when Naruto's affinity had turned up to be wind. The blonde duo had spent nearly three hours in the sands, the former occasionally bonking the latter over the head, and she'd promised to procure a fan similar to her own and teach him someday.

It had been a little frivolous, and not thought out, as they lived days away from each other in different countries, but Gaara could see she liked him.

However, if there were several things he would have most liked to see every day, they were Naruto breaking through Temari's shell, Kankuro running after him screaming after finding his puppets painted like women, a pair of understanding eyes when the people of his village feared or scorned him.

Although he was comparatively biased, he had also noticed several things: Naruto was genuinely happy with his family, in a way he wasn't with his teammates. He liked them well enough, and thought them his friends, but there were not the same types of secrets or stress in Suna.

A voice in the back of his mind told him he was jealous- jealous that they were able to spend every day with Naruto, yet treated him like a buffoon half the time.

The same voice told him Naruto would be much better off in the Sabaku household. Better off in Suna.

A tad ironic, considering Suna had attacked Naruto's home village, but Jinchurikis' situations were always tricky.

_Would it not be better for them to stick together?_

Perhaps he was being selfish? Wanting that ray of sunshine somewhere it didn't want to go? Then again, how attached to his village was Naruto? Gaara had never asked him; hadn't inquired as to whether or not he'd ever considered leaving or wanted something different.

The answer to that conundrum was simple, his mind supplied. All he would have to do- to gain another member of his family, a brother, to make sure Naruto didn't experience the pain and loneliness they both shared again. He had to be committed; if he truly wanted Naruto there, he would have to be determined. Even if Naruto didn't want to migrate at first- there could have been a multitude of reasons he might refuse; feelings of obligation, loyalty to his village in place of what he wanted, or simple indecision. After finding a way to make it _happen_ , of course-

_"Even with that, though…too bad he's not a Suna ninja."_

All Gaara had to do was convince him to come to the other side.

* * *

"Ah, home sweet home!" Naruto exclaimed as he stretched his arms overhead, waving to Izumo and Kotetsu. "Hey guys!"

"Hey Naruto," one of them replied; he couldn't tell which, because they were both leaning beneath the desk rifling through something. Probably trying to get their messy records into order by command of Iruka.

He left for the Hokage Tower, but something felt…different. Like he'd been gone for months, and while he knew where everything was, it held a new sense of unfamiliarity. Shrugging, he ignored it, shoving his hands in his pockets as he walked across the street.

"Hey! Naruto!"

"Sakura-chan!" He called, grinning. She didn't look any different, and he didn't know why he had expected her to- he'd only been gone a week.

She jogged down the sidewalk towards him. "I can't believe you didn't even tell me you were leaving," she huffed, planting her hands on her hips.

"Sorry. Granny gave me the mission right after promoting me."

"I still can't believe you got promoted," she said with a frown, scratching her cheek. "Not even Sasuke-kun was made a chuunin!"

"Wasn't Shikamaru too?" Naruto attempted to change the subject.

"Yeah. I don't think he's even taken a C-rank on his own yet, though. Anyway, I'm visiting Sasuke-kun today, do you want to come?"

"I'll head over after I go report to Granny Tsunade," Naruto said, waving at her as he leapt onto a building.

* * *

Naruto didn't know how this had gone so wrong.

He'd gone to visit Sasuke, and he'd sent Sakura's apple slices flying before demanding a fight. Naruto had obliged, and he realized that perhaps he'd reacted based too heavily on his anger. Iruka was always cautioning him about that.

He didn't think Sasuke would try to _chidori_ him.

His half-formed Rasengan was in hand, both of them having leapt at each other with their attacks at the ready. Sakura was screaming for them to stop, voice distant to Naruto's ears.

Gaara popped into his head, how he'd enlisted in the regular Suna forces and how hard he tried to be gentle and show people he wanted their forgiveness and trust. Even the people who'd attacked or spit at him. He hadn't reacted with violence, not once, even when Naruto could tell it might have been difficult for him. ( _Recovery isn't overnight._ ) If he ever used his sand against someone, it would just make it all…

Worse.

_"You're a chuunin now, Naruto. That means you have to look out for those in the ranks below you."_

"Sasuke-kun, Naruto, _stop! Please!_ "

He didn't _really_ want to hurt Sasuke. He didn't feel angry anymore. He let his Rasengan dissipate before it was even finished, but he couldn't stop his momentum now, and Sasuke was still coming, face twisted in fury. _What had he done wrong?_

In the back of his mind, he hoped Sasuke would let his attack go, too. But as they got closer and closer, it was apparent the Uchiha wasn't stopping. In the span of a few seconds, Naruto felt like he'd lost his friend completely.

He folded his arms in front of his vital organs and pressed his eyes shut.

" _Naruto!"_

He slammed into something that felt like a wall. However, there was no electricity running through him (he knew what it felt like to be electrocuted, as five-year-old Naruto hadn't known sticking forks in electrical outlets was a bad idea); no stabbing pain in his chest that meant Sasuke had run him through. Hesitantly, he opened his eyes, taking a deep breath.

The tension was gone. It felt like a normal rooftop again, and not a battleground. Sakura's screaming had stopped, and Sasuke was nowhere to be seen.

"Sensei?" he asked.

"You all right, Naruto?" Kakashi asked, sounding as casual as ever, but the usual curve of his eye was gone.

"I'm fine," Naruto said, but his legs had turned to jelly, and he slumped to the floor, leaning back on his hands as he stared at the water container Sasuke had put a leak in. His chidori had pierced the steel as if it were made out of flimsy paper.

_Was he really going to kill me?_

Had he known that would happen, or would he have come to his senses with his hand in Naruto's chest and been scarred for life?

"S-sensei," Sakura said, coming to a stop right in front of them with tears gathered in her eyes.

Kakashi let out a sigh as he rubbed the back of his head. Naruto glanced towards Sasuke, who was staring at the hand that had held his chidori, not even acknowledging them.

"I'm sorry, you two," Kakashi said. "I need to have a talk with him." Looking weary, he nodded to Naruto, eye curving upward once more. "Congratulations on your promotion, Naruto. You earned it."

"Thanks, sensei," Naruto replied, feeling a little hollow as he watched Kakashi leap away in pursuit of his wayward student.

"A-are you all right?" Sakura asked. She swept her bangs behind one ear, gnawing on her bottom lip. "He didn't…hurt you, did he?" She knew they'd both been going at it at first, but she'd been so startled by the end that her whole perception of the fight had been altered.

"Aw, come on, Sakura," Naruto grinned, trying to put her at ease. "I'm fine. The teme couldn't put _me_ out of commission!" She shared a weak smile with him, and they both tried to ignore the broken steel behind them. Even if Naruto knew his Rasengan would have demolished the whole side, he'd made a choice he wasn't even fully aware of; he was never going to use that attack against a friend, even if that choice ended up killing him.

* * *

The story would have been much different if it were " _Kakashi-sensei broke up Naruto and Sasuke fighting on the roof!"_ Instead, Naruto's choice, as small as it seemed to him, had altered many details; when he next saw Sasuke, the boy was quiet and wouldn't look him in the face, and instead some rumors more like " _Did you hear? Uchiha tried to kill his teammate because he got promoted instead of him."_ had started to go around. Naruto, to some extent, understood Sasuke, and knew that it hadn't been his intent to kill him- he knew all too well how off the rails one could end up if they let their anger control them.

Some of the people who refused to accept him had started whispering that he'd done something to provoke Sasuke. Sakura, whenever they met up, tried to get them to get along.

Naruto had never learned to deal with stress very well. He either laughed, got angry, or tried to avoid it. As a result, he distanced himself from his team, spending less time with them as the days dragged on.

He couldn't avoid being assigned missions with them, however. When he heard it was a joint mission with the Sand, he was practically bouncing as they exited the gate, repeating a mantra over and over in his head of _Please send Gaara._

"Now remember, you three, this mission is important for the relations between our villages," Kakashi was lecturing. Naruto shook his head and returned his attention to him. After having been on several missions with squad leaders who weren't as accommodating of his behavior, he'd gained a new respect for squad captains. He'd gone to Lightning Country with someone who used weird wood techniques, and _wow_ did that guy not take any lip from his subordinates. He didn't even get angry- he just gave him a terrifying stare.

"Yeah. So don't mess anything up and cause an incident, Naruto," Sakura said, sticking her tongue out at him. Some of the tension had eased between them, and although Naruto couldn't help but feel like the odd man out sometimes, it was starting to feel like it had before what he not-so-fondly referred to as the Hospital Incident.

"Hey, I won't cause an incident! I know how important it is," he grumbled in response.

She giggled. "Yeah right. We're talking about things like politics, village relations…don't think too hard on it."

"Whatever. Hey, let's race! Last one there's a rotten egg!"

"Naruto! You didn't even say go!"

* * *

"I win!" Naruto yelled, skidding into a clearing in front of a river with his fists in the air. "Mwahahaha!"

"You are so childish!" Sakura huffed, landing beside him. Kakashi and Sasuke followed soon after, Kakashi checking his watch.

Naruto shielded his eyes, glancing around the clearing. "Where's the Suna ninja?" he complained. "Are they late?"

"Don't be so impatient," Sakura chastised him, sighing.

 _Tap-tap-tap._ "I apologize for being late," a familiar voice said behind him. Naruto wheeled around, a grin lighting up his face.

"Gaara!" he cheered, while Sasuke and Sakura went tense. He leapt onto the river and ran across to meet him.

"Naruto."

"We're very sorry for being late," one of the two shinobi wading through the river said.

"Yes, very so-" The second one abruptly cut himself off when Naruto gave Gaara a flying tackle hug usually reserved for Iruka.

The two disappeared, placing themselves a good thirty feet away behind a bush, and Sakura sweatdropped. "W-where'd they go?"

"He gave Lord Gaara a hug!" one of them squeaked.

"I know! Is he going to be okay?" the other whispered.

"I apologize for them. They're rookies, please be patient with them," Gaara said as Naruto hung off him and gave the two ninja a flat stare, not necessarily returning the hug but certainly not complaining. "They are Korobi and Yaoki."

"I-I'm Korobi!"

"And I'm Yaoki!" The two shot off in tandem.

"Uh…it's nice to meet you," Sakura called with a wave.

"Well, now that you're here we can begin," Kakashi said with a cheery smile.

* * *

Naruto wondered what had been so secretive Gaara had to go off with Kakashi alone to talk about it.

Surely it couldn't be anything that would jeopardize Suna and Konoha's relationship. If that happened, or even worse, they became hostile, Naruto wasn't sure what he would have to do.

"All right, so we'll attack from the west, and you guys'll attack from the east," Kakashi concluded with a smile. His team sat behind him in various positions on the branches of the forest, thick and dense enough Naruto could barely see the bandit hideout in the distance. Yaoki and Korobi stood beside the boxes they'd been carrying, while Gaara stood across from Kakashi with his arms folded.

"I would also like to propose an additional arrangement," Gaara said, gesturing with one hand to Yaoki. "I thought it would be an exercise in trust to temporarily trade one shinobi between our squads, with one Suna shinobi working with the Konoha team and one Konohagakure shinobi working with the Suna squad. Yaoki has graciously volunteered for this. While separation is necessary, working closely together would be beneficial to the ties between our villages."

"I see. That's a good idea." Kakashi's eye turned upward. "Sasuke, why don't you-"

"Actually, I was hoping you would lend me Naruto," Gaara interrupted him. His expression was blank, but Naruto could sense something tense in him. He tilted his head, crossing his arms behind his head, and decided to ask later. "I feel his fighting style would be more useful to my squad, as we all specialize in long-distance battle. His ability to produce kage bunshin would be extremely beneficial. It would allow us to scout ahead without being forced to move in closer."

"Can I, Kaka-sensei?" Naruto asked with a wheedling grin.

"Ah, all right, then. Naruto, hop on over."

With a whoop, Naruto leapt the distance between their two trees, wrapping one arm around Gaara's neck and forming a V with the other. "Sweet!"

"Naruto, be more serious," Sakura chastised with a shake of her head. _How is he that comfortable with him?_ she thought, eyeing Gaara nervously. _He seems like he's changed, but he was so…crazy, back then._

"Well then." Kakashi turned his head upwards to check the position of the sun. "Time to head out, I guess."

"You be careful, Naruto!" Sakura yelled as Kakashi and Sasuke moved to leap away. "Don't mess anything up!"

He stuck his tongue out at her. "You too, don't get too busy watching Sasuke!"

"What was that?!" she screamed, shaking her fist, before Kakashi dragged her off.

Naruto turned to Gaara, canines glinting in the sunlight as he grinned. "All righty, then, captain," he said with a mock salute. "Time to get to work?"

Gaara eyed him with a slight smile tugging at his lips. "Yes," he replied, "time to get to work."


	6. Step One: Evaluate Your Target

"So." Naruto wiggled his eyebrows. "How's 'being a normal genin' been going? Have you exploded from all the D-ranks yet?"

A small smile alit on Gaara's face. "Not yet," he replied, reaching over to adjust Naruto's course as they flew through the tree branches so he wouldn't land on a sharp piece of wood. "I find them quite bearable."

Naruto wrinkled his nose. "I _hated_ D-ranks. They were so annoying. Always painting fences or carrying some old lady's groceries."

Gaara raised one hairless eyebrow. "Do you not enjoy helping others?" he asked, a slight teasing tone in his voice.

Naruto paused on a branch and took out the map Gaara had given him before they'd set out. "Well, it's fun if the old lady's _nice_ ," he clarified, before pouting. "But usually they'd just yell at me not to drop things." The pout disappeared as he rolled his eyes and grinned. "And want to hold Sasuke's arm as we walked."

"So…" Gaara tilted his head a fraction, glancing at the blond out of the corner of his eye. "Would you say you enjoyed most missions you took before you became a chuunin?"

"Uh, I guess? I mean, 'most' might be an exaggeration…they weren't my idea of _fun_ , but I had a few I liked, like when I visited Wave Country."

"Then, the majority were unenjoyable?"

"Eh." Naruto tilted his head, scratching his temple as he examined the map, only half paying attention. "Yeah, I guess?" Most civilians weren't happy to see him, even though they didn't treat him badly outright. Although most of his missions hadn't been so unenjoyable to stand out in his memory, few of them had been missions he had liked so greatly he actually remembered them, such as when he made friends with Inari. "I need to visit Inari sometime. Didja know they named a bridge after me?" He turned to Gaara again with a sharp grin.

"Oh?"

"Yeah, the Great Naruto Bridge- you should see it; it's _awesome_ -"

"U-uh," Korobi gulped from behind them. "S-shouldn't we try to get to the checkpoint by mid-afternoon?"

"Oh, right, sorry," Naruto half-yelled, stuffing the map back into the pouch on his waist. When he'd seen Naruto about to go on a mission in his usual "kill me" orange attire, Iruka- practically frothing at the mouth- had drug him five whole blocks by the ear to a clothing store and made him shop for _a whole hour_ getting something more suitable. Evidently, chuunin had to be "more professional".

"Right. We should head west from here." Gaara straightened, glancing to the trees behind them. Korobi sighed in relief and moved on, but Naruto paused, questions dancing in his head.

_He seems kinda off…_ He rubbed the top of his head, watching Gaara's back rather inconspicuously. _Maybe he's not tellin' me somethin'? Like that time Yamato-taichou didn't tell me those guys were following us 'cause he thought I'd start yelling._ He pouted. _Well, he wasn't_ wrong…

They moved through the trees in a single file line, Korobi in the middle. Naruto stared curiously at the box on his back, wondering what he was carrying, before Kankuro popped into his mind; he always carried his puppet on his back. He wondered if Korobi was a puppeteer as well, or if he was as good as Kankuro was. Gaara's brother was already working on how to control three puppets at once instead of two.

_Thud_. He landed on a tree branch, keeping Gaara's flash of red hair and Korobi's head covering in sight. He didn't consciously notice it, but he felt freer, more relaxed.

_Thud_. There was a noticeable shift in the atmosphere. Nothing he could quite put his finger on, but he was enjoying himself rather than just plodding forward one step after another.

_Thud_. Tsunade complained about _him_ complaining about their missions, but he hadn't put up fuss about going on this one; he came to the conclusion that Gaara was just awesome and thus the reason why this was fun.

_Thud._ He almost felt more at home in this three-man squad than with his own teammates.

_Thud_. The end would suck, though; he wondered if the granny could find another mission to Suna for him to take.

_Thud._ He landed; a cold piece of metal pressed against his neck, making him freeze. "Don't move," a voice whispered in his ear, "If you don't make a scene, you won't get hurt. This doesn't involve you."

Naruto clamped down on the urge to start yelling and sock the guy a good one. _Okay, okay, all I gotta do is get his kunai away from my neck,_ he thought, slowly raising his hands in a surrendering gesture. _He can stab me anywhere else and I'll be fine. Well…I'll prooobably be fine._

Gaara came skidding to a stop. For a moment, he didn't move, but then he looked over his shoulder, eyes narrowed. "What is it, Gaara-sama?" Korobi asked, stopping at his side with a nervous expression.

There was a rustling in the trees around them. All three glanced up, Naruto going bug-eyed when he saw countless shinobi surrounding them from above. _One, two, three, four, five-_ He went slightly dizzy trying to count them all.

"If you're here to eliminate me, leave the Leaf shinobi out of it," Gaara called out. Naruto recognized his own version of a scowl, which involved the corners of his mouth slightly turned down and his eyes going narrow, almost imperceptible to a stranger.

"We merely need to make sure he doesn't interfere. As long as he doesn't make trouble, we won't kill him," the shinobi behind him said. After a moment, Naruto's eyes widened- he recognized their headbands.

"Hey! You guys are from Suna! What're you doing attacking allies?!"

"I told you to be quiet," the shinobi holding him growled.

"Our mission is no business of yours," the leader yelled down.

Naruto stared at him in confusion. "Naruto," Gaara interrupted, making Naruto's head swivel to look at him, "do as they say."

Naruto's jaw dropped. "What? Why?"

The box on Korobi's back burst open. He yelped and stumbled forward as a puppet burst from it, weaving away from him and going to circle around Gaara. "It was clever of you to trade away one of your subordinates," the ANBU in the lead said. "But we'll complete our mission, only one puppet aside."

"What the hell is your mission?" Naruto demanded, anger rising. "Why are you after Ga-" He paused, finally connecting the dots.

They were trying to kill Gaara because he was a Jinchuriki.

_Monster._

"You assholes."

"Not another word," his captor snapped, pressing the kunai harder against his neck. A tiny sliver of blood leaked from his skin, but Naruto didn't even feel it.

The plug popped off Gaara's gourd as sand poured out. The puppet charged him, and it automatically formed a protective shell around its master, but the puppet stopped short. Its mouth opened wide and poured water out in gallons, rotating around the shield over and over.

_Oh, crap._ Water. Naruto had spent long enough with Gaara to know it was the only real weakness in his sand defense. If his sand got wet, it became sluggish and heavy.

Several of the shinobi started firing off water jutsu. Naruto glowered in frustration, twitching his hand closer to his neck and struggling not to just leap onto the man behind him like an angry cat.

Actually, that sounded like a great idea now that his hand was close enough to the blade.

Quick as a flash, he slipped his fingers in between his neck and the kunai, elbowing the shinobi hard in the gut. Let it be said that what Naruto lacked in technique he made up for in spades with brute force; the shinobi coughed up spit and bent in half, his kunai slicing through the skin of Naruto's hand when he tried to angle it down. Naruto slipped out from under him and bashed him over the head with his fist, sending him careening down to the forest floor below.

"Lay off, ya bastards!" He let out a war cry and lunged for the nearest one, forming a familiar hand seal. "Kage bunshin no jutsu!"

"Korobi, get out of here," Gaara ordered, clenching his teeth as he struggled to keep his sand shield from crumbling. Their third squad mate had been trembling on a different branch, at a loss about what to do, and startled when Gaara addressed him. "Go! Flee now!"

"O-okay!" Scrambling up, Korobi darted away into the trees, catching the attention of one of Naruto's clones.

_That coward!_ he thought with a twitch. It took off after him, leaving three Narutos to brawl with the Suna ANBU.

* * *

Korobi and Yaoki ran smack dab into each other in the forest, bowling each other over in a comical fashion and ending up on the ground. "Ow!" they exclaimed in unison.

Naruto's clone came barreling after them, tripping over a tree branch and just barely keeping himself from popping. "Gah!"

"N-Naruto?" Korobi stammered.

"The hell are you doing?!" Naruto yelled, pointing a finger in his face.

"W-what?"

"Suna shinobi attacked Kakashi-san's squad!" Yaoki said, face twisted with worry. "I came straight back to find Korobi, but…" He trailed off, turning his face to the ground in shame.

"You guys aren't even going to help Gaara?" The clone growled. "He's your friend! Are you just gonna abandon him?"

"F-friend?" Korobi stammered. "Is- is Gaara-sama our friend?" He turned to Yaoki for an answer.

"I don't know…"

"Yeah, well he is _my_ friend, so I'm gonna help him! If you two want to be cowards, just stay right here, nobody needs you," the clone said, dispelling itself with a glare.

The two glanced at each other in indecision. "W-well," Korobi stuttered, "what are we going to do?"

* * *

"Oof!" Naruto stumbled when an ANBU tripped into him, both of them spiraling into a tree. "Oi! Watch where you're going, ya idiot!"

The ANBU just made a growling noise in response, lunging to wrap her hands around Naruto's neck. Naruto dodged by jumping off the tree they occupied, yelping when another one grabbed the back of his jacket and attempting to skewer him with his tantō.

"Naruto-san!"

The tantō glanced off wood, knocking into the ANBU member's mask. A puppet shielded Naruto with its mouth open wide, starting to spew water onto the ANBU gathered in front of it. A moment later, it released an electrical current and electrocuted them simultaneously.

"Guys!" A large grin overtook Naruto's face. Korobi landed behind him in time to block an incoming sword, while Yaoki controlled the puppet from above.

"We won't let you kill Gaara-sama! He's our friend!" Yaoki yelled. Shock rang across Gaara's expression, sand falling to his feet and through the branches and leaves.

"What you guys are doing is wrong. He's changed now!" Korobi added. "You shouldn't obey orders if they're wrong!"

Naruto beamed. "Those who break the rules of shinobi may be scum," he said with a thumbs-up. "But those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum."

"This will _not_ go unpunished-" The leader, who Naruto had dubbed Goose because of how stupid he thought his mask looked, was interrupted by Gaara.

" _Enough._ I will end this here." He held up one hand with a tiny ball of sand, water dribbling out of it. "And this is all I will need."

"As if- oof!" The orb socked Goose in the stomach. The rest of the squad watched in awe as it darted from shinobi to shinobi, knocking them unconscious with only one blow.

"Gaara-sama is amazing!" Yaoki exclaimed.

Korobi jumped forward when the shinobi using his puppet got clobbered. He quickly reattached his own chakra strands, drawing the puppet back into the box on his back. In less than five minutes, every ANBU lay strewn about on the ground, groaning while the Suna nin and Naruto stood in the middle of the clearing.

"That was awesome!" Naruto cheered, raising both fists into the air. "You got 'em all in one hit!"

"And you only needed such a small amount of sand! I guess less is more, sometimes," Yaoki beamed.

Gaara glanced at the ground, lips pulling upward. "Are any of you injured?"

"No, I'm fine."

"I'm all right as well."

"I'm good to go! Let's show those bandits what's what!"

* * *

They met up with Naruto's squad- although he felt more like Gaara's squad was "his" squad- and circled back around to the bandit hideout together. Breaking in through the front door was probably more difficult than dealing with the actual bandits.

As soon as they'd cleared them out, they stood in the wreckage saying their goodbyes. "It was nice working with you, Gaara," Kakashi said with his usual smile. "Don't worry about those guys from your village. They didn't cause us much trouble."

"I'm glad. I apologize for them," Gaara replied. "I was aware they were following us, but I did not think they would draw you into the conflict."

"Maa, it's fine." Kakashi's eye curved even more, if it was possible.

"You guys gotta try Machiki's Ramen!" Naruto was ranting to Korobi and Yaoki, off to one side while Sasuke and Sakura stood a small distance away looking a tad awkward; they didn't quite know who to talk to, and Naruto's familiarity with the foreign nin was odd. "I mean, it's not as good as Ichiraku's- no one's is- but it's like second best. The best one in Suna, anyway! They've got this great flavor that has a really weird spice in it I can't pronounce but it's awesome!"

"We'll visit as soon as we file our report!" Korobi was just as enthusiastic, unsurprisingly. The three got on like a house on fire. "When you visit Suna again we can go together!"

"Sweet!"

Naruto wheeled around when someone tapped him on the shoulder. Gaara looked apologetic, gaze lowered down slightly so he was looking at Naruto's shoulder instead of his eyes. "I apologize for any inconvenience I caused," he said with a small bow.

"Don't worry about it, buddy," Naruto smiled sympathetically, patting him on the shoulder. "Things'll get better, I know it."

Sakura cast a confused glance at the back of his head, wondering how he spoke in such a way with the redhead- and why he was evidently so familiar with his situation.

"I also…" Gaara paused. "Would like to say it wasn't my intention to simply trade away one of the puppets. I was unaware that was part of their plan. I simply…" _Wanted to spend time with you._ "Thought you would be safer in my squad." It wasn't untrue.

"Ey, it's okay! I never doubted you for a minute."

"By the way…" Gaara glanced at Korobi and Yaoki, almost nervous. "Could you say what you said before again?"

"Eh? Um…it's wrong to follow an order if it's wrong?" Korobi said with a confused blink.

"No, the- the other thing."

"Ah!" Korobi traded a grin with Yaoki. They both leaned in, practically glowing. "You're our friend!" They said in unison.

Gaara smiled. Naruto felt something like butterflies flutter around in his stomach, and his grin wobbled.

_Things really_ will _change._

Seeing Gaara make his first friends made him so happy he thought he might explode.

"Naruto! We're leaving! Want to get back by nightfall, if you would," Kakashi called from the other side of the clearing. His book was already out as he sauntered away at a leisurely pace, Sakura and Sasuke tagging along behind him.

"Oh! Right! Coming, sensei!" Naruto wheeled and dove in for a quick hug, wrapping his arms around Gaara's shoulders like a leech. "Bye, Gaara."

Gaara slowly moved his arms up until he had returned the gesture, a little tense and awkward, but reciprocating nonetheless. "Goodbye, Naruto."

Naruto let go and jogged away, looking over his shoulder and waving. The three Suna nin returned it, and he kept looking until he felt the ground becoming rocky enough he had to watch where he was going.

With great effort, he finally turned his head away.

* * *

"So, Naruto. What was up with you and that Gaara guy?" Sakura asked, peering closely at him as he walked along with his hands folded behind his head. Sasuke eyed them both, seemingly ignoring them all- he'd been quiet ever since the hospital fight- but paid attention to his answer.

"Hm? Whaddaya mean?" Naruto opened his eyes and squinted at her.

"Well, you just seem really…friendly is all." She shrugged. He was friendlier with Gaara than he'd ever been with her or Sasuke, or even the other genin. And he'd been pretty determined to make them all friends.

Naruto shrugged obliviously. "He's my friend."

"I mean, I know he's different now, but he did try and…kill us all," Sakura said, wincing at the memory of being stuck to a tree slowly being suffocated.

Naruto frowned. "Yeah, I know, and he's real sorry about that. But he's changed a lot." He was coming down from the high he'd caught during the mission, falling back into the old routine. "He's my best friend," he said honestly. "He understands me."

Sakura and Sasuke both arched their eyebrows. "What could you two possibly have in common?" Sasuke rolled his eyes. "He's not an idiot like you."

"Oi! Don't call me an idiot, teme!"

"Don't call Sasuke that, moron!" Sakura bashed him over the head with a tick pulsing on her forehead. Naruto rubbed the abused area with a pout.

"Yeah, well. Lot more than you'd think," Naruto muttered at the ground, feeling something sour rise in him. His comment confused them, making Kakashi eye him out of the corner of his eye.

He found himself wishing he was walking with Gaara and the puppeteer duo instead of his team. _Man, it'd have been nice to go back to Suna for a few days with them._ Wistfully, he stopped himself before he started daydreaming about it.

Besides, he was sure Iruka would go for ramen with him after a successful mission. The thought made him brighten.

He was sure he'd get another mission collaborating with Suna anyway. His friends living in another village was just something he'd have to deal with.

…But he couldn't help it. Sakura morphed into Temari as she ranted at him about proper manners, instead rambling on about wind chakra and how to use the fan she'd gotten him, when she got around to getting him a fan. Sasuke turned into Kankuro, walking ahead with a small smirk, with his silly-looking makeup ( _"It's battle paint, dammit!"_ ) Kakashi appeared as Baki, a distant presence at the front of the group trying to ignore their jabbering.

Gaara fell into step alongside him, a friend who Naruto could truly bring any problem to and speak openly about how he felt about being a Jinchuriki. A small smile on his lips, he turned to ask Naruto something.

He felt like he fitted in for once. _Truly_ , fully fit into a dynamic.

"What do you want to do when we get back to Suna?"

"Naruto?

"Naruto?

" _Naruto!"_

Naruto yelped when Sakura's fist came down on his head again. "What was that for?" he whined.

Twitching, she pointed a finger in his face with a scowl. "I was calling you!"

"Whatever," he mumbled. "What is it?"

"I was asking what you were doing when you got back to Konoha."

"I dunno. Getting ramen, probably." He beamed.

She rolled her eyes. "Why am I not surprised," she muttered, moving forward to bug Sasuke.

Naruto sighed and let his smile drop. It was a nice dream…but he liked Konoha and he liked the people there. There wasn't any point fantasizing about the impossible- even if it really was something fun to fantasize about.

Drawing up his grin again, he jogged forward until he'd caught up with his team, crafting an excuse to visit Suna in his head to give to Tsunade. He may be a Leaf shinobi, but that didn't mean he couldn't visit often.


	7. Take a Break

"Come _on_ , ero-sennin, you seriously have to run off now? We haven't trained in like two weeks," Naruto pouted.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. 'Train me, train me'! You don't even give me any time to research." Jiraiya crossed his arms with a sullen expression. "But I've got a mission, so you'll have to train on your own."

"Ehgh. Fine. But when you get back you're showin' me some bigger fire jutsu," Naruto said, eyes lighting up as he poked Jiraiya's haori. "I wanna be able to make _big_ flames with the Boss toad like you used against that Orochimaru guy!"

Jiraiya smirked. "Yeah, I hear. _Big_ flames. All right, don't get into trouble, brat." He ruffled Naruto's hair before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Naruto folded his arms behind his head and turned around to saunter down the street. "Guess I'll go ask baa-chan for a mission," he muttered, before brightening. "Maybe she'll have one to Suna!"

He took off over the rooftops at a more enthusiastic gait, making his way to the Hokage Tower.

He had just touched down on the street when one of the windows on the Hokage's office blew out, the result of the chair that had just come catapulting through it. A few people shrieked and darted out of the way as glass littered the ground below, and the chair fell out of sight; a moment later, Naruto heard a yell of pain.

"Someone must've pissed baa-chan off," Naruto said with a sweatdrop, leaping onto a short stone wall and glancing down at where he reckoned the chair had landed.

Izumo was moaning into the ground. His face was streaked with blood, and there was a large knot on his forehead. Kotetsu knelt beside him with an aura halfway between confused and concerned.

"Are you okay?" Naruto called as he jumped down. He'd forgotten the guy's name, but he looked strangely similar to the proctor at the chuunin exams.

"Can't Tsunade-sama keep her furniture inside…?" Izumo winced as Kotetsu and Naruto helped him up, all three glancing nervously at the fallen chair beside them. "Wonder who pissed her off."

"Are you guys those guys from the chuunin exams?" Naruto squinted up at them.

"What? Oh, yeah, Naruto," Kotetsu said in realization. "I'm Kotetsu; this is Izumo. We sat in on the second test. I'm surprised you got promoted."

"Hey, just 'cause I didn't cheat doesn't mean I'm not strong enough to be a chuunin!"

"I didn't say that, I didn't say that! Anyway…let's get Tsunade-sama's chair back inside. I'm sure she'll want it…"

Five minutes later, Naruto was walking backwards up the steps leading to the office hefting the chair on his shoulder. "At least it wasn't a desk," Kotetsu joked.

"Real funny," Izumo snarked, holding a handkerchief to his face as he walked behind them.

Naruto didn't bother knocking; he just kicked open the door to Tsunade's office and interrupted whatever conversation she was having with Shizune and Kakashi. Sasuke and Sakura had been standing in the hallway, oddly silent, and hadn't looked at him as he passed.

"Oi, granny! I get wanting to punch somethin' real good, but watch where you throw your stuff!" Naruto shouted with a scowl.

"What?" Tsunade's gaze snapped to him. Kakashi raised his one visible eyebrow, while Shizune just slapped a palm to her forehead and shook her head.

"Clocked Izumo right in the face," Naruto said, jabbing his finger in the chuunin's direction.

"O-oh, it-it's fine, Tsunade-sama!" Izumo snapped to attention nervously, cursing Naruto in his head. "I'll stop at the hospital!"

"Don't be silly. Sit down." Tsunade gestured with one hand. Naruto set her chair down behind the desk as she went over to heal his injury.

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei." He didn't know when he'd stopped saying Kaka-sensei; he just used the first reflex he had.

"Get waylaid by flying chairs?" Kakashi asked lightly, eyes on his book.

"Hmph. Yeah. What's up with Sasuke and Sakura?"

"Oh, Sasuke and Tsunade just had a little…disagreement." Kakashi eyed the door.

"Uh…disagreement?"

Tsunade whipped around while she was still healing Izumo, making him startle in fear. "That little brat thinks he can take whatever missions he wants."

"O-ow, Tsunade-sama!" Izumo winced as her grip tightened.

"Well," Kakashi eye-smiled, rubbing his head. "Really, Sasuke was just set on training today, and when he heard the mission Tsunade-sama wanted us on he just tried to back out of it."

"Yeah, 'back out of it'. More like turn his nose up at me and try to leave with some flippant 'I'll be training if you _need me_ , Kakashi'. Thinks he's too good for an exercise, hm?"

"Um, what exercise?" Naruto started to sweat, feeling like he was opening a can of worms he wanted to avoid. Seeing as she was in such a bad mood, he decided to wait on asking for specific missions. Iruka was always telling him to be more respectful, especially now that they were both chuunin and saw each other more often… It'd show everyone who said Sasuke should've been promoted that Naruto was just as deserving.

"Teams Kurenai, Asuma, Kakashi and Gai were our front-runners in the chuunin exams. They're the genin we have who will most likely be ready for the next exams, so I wanted to have a joint training exercise. Evidently Sasuke thinks if you're not required to be there, neither is he."

"But…I'm a chuunin," Naruto said, question marks dancing around his head.

"Well, it seems he needs it drilled into his head that you're higher ranked than him," Tsunade said through gritted teeth as she let go of Izumo and sat down.

"Now, now, Tsunade-sama, I don't think that will help anything," Kakashi smiled nervously, trying to appease her. "I'll talk to him."

"Sure, you'll talk to him. I heard he attacked Naruto on the hospital roof because he got promoted," Tsunade said, raising an eyebrow.

"That's a tad inaccurate. They were both fighting."

"Is that so?" She turned a raised eyebrow on Naruto.

The blond shifted from one foot to the other, suddenly feeling the need to deny such a thing instead of loudly spouting off as he would have done. "Well, er…we were at first…I went to see him after that mission with Idate, but he seemed real mad about something, and he told me to fight him. I got…uh, pretty mad, 'cuz he knocked Sakura's plate to the floor after she peeled an apple for him…so we went up to the roof, but it didn't really feel like fighting Sasuke usually does. I mean, usually it's kinda fun, but he was really angry at me. And when he started charging his chidori, I just sort of…stopped. I mean, I didn't feel mad anymore, and Iruka-sensei's always telling me I shouldn't start fights with lower-ranked ninja, or higher-ranked ninja too, but I should look out for genin. I was hoping he'd stop too, but he just kept comin', and that's when Kakashi-sensei stopped us. I don't think he would've actually stabbed me, though!"

"I see." Tsunade frowned. Drumming her fingernails on the desk, she gave them both a narrow-eyed glance before raising her voice. "Oi, genin, get in here!"

The door creaked open. Sakura filed in with Sasuke on her heels, giving them a weak smile.

Naruto squinted. Most social nuances flew right over his head, but he could have sworn that the air about Team Seven felt abnormally awkward. Sakura looked like she didn't know what to do with herself, while Sasuke refused to look at him, and just stared at the desk with a set jaw.

"Well, the gang's all here," Kakashi chuckled, trying to lighten the mood. If anything, it just made it more uncomfortable.

"Naruto here will be joining the genin exercise. He's a chuunin, of course, but still from your graduating class. I'm sure it will be…helpful." Tsunade gestured towards the door. "Be at Training Ground Twelve at five o'clock today. Don't bring any provisions."

"Uh, okay." Naruto stared in confusion as Sasuke 'hmph'ed and left without a word, Sakura on his heels- although she did shoot him a glance as she left. Naruto waved at her with a grin, while Kakashi patted him on the shoulder as he passed and followed after them.

"Say, granny, what's this exercise s'pposed to be?"

"You'll see," Tsunade replied with a smirk.

"Will it take very long? I wanna get ramen tonight before they close…"

She sighed. "I'll buy you all you can eat tomorrow if you don't complain."

"Really?! Yeah! I won't say a word!"

Bribery. Always worked.

* * *

The sun was beginning to set when Naruto made it to the training grounds. It was a clearing set in the forest deep in the village, far enough he couldn't hear the sounds of life from the villagers. There were several logs strewn about- he could see Team Ten lounging on one, Ino alternating between looking bored and glancing at Sasuke, Choji pouting at something, and Shikamaru half-asleep as he leaned on one hand; Shino was as stoic as ever on one with Kiba grumbling next to him and Hinata fidgeting; Lee was stretching in the grass while TenTen and Neji sat side by side on another. Sasuke was leaning against a tree, leaving Sakura to sit alone.

All four sensei were there, speaking in low tones at one end. Naruto cleared his throat and caught Sakura's attention, walking over with a grin. "Hey, Sakura, know anything about what we're all doing?"

"Unfortunately no. Sensei hasn't said a word." Sakura frowned at Kakashi's back.

"All right, teams," Asuma abruptly called out. Every genin plus one chuunin turned their attention to him as he took his cigarette in hand to speak. "Here's how this is going to work. We're going to split into two groups, straight down the middle so each one has six of you and two of us." He jutted his thumb at the other sensei. " _We_ will only be observing and making sure no unfortunate accidents happen. For each team, two of you will pretend to be mission clients. The other four will protect you from the opposing team. We'll take turns so each team has a chance to protect their two members; that is, at first, Team A will protect two of you while the whole of Team B tries to 'capture' those two, and then vice versa. Any questions?"

Neji raised his hand. "Neji?"

"What constitutes as 'capturing' a member of the opposing squad?" The Hyuuga asked, face blank.

"A capture is any action that would constitute an actual hostage situation and keep others from interfering. Pointing a kunai at a member's neck, physically removing them from their team, etc. Keep in mind this is an exercise, so you can't actually hurt them. However, the two pretending to be clients also can't fight back."

"Eh?!" Ino squeaked. "How's that fair?"

"It's fair because you're pretending to be civilians," Kurenai broke in. "You can't use any of your shinobi skills. Is that clear?" Ino frowned, but nodded. "However, you _can_ try and escape with the skills of a civilian. If you slip any restraints and run away, make sure to keep it at a low speed."

Shikamaru yawned. "What's the mission goals?"

Asuma smirked. "You'll be escorting your two civilians to a checkpoint in the woods. It's marked by a purple flag. We'll give you maps, but no further instruction on that. The opposing team is allowed to waylay and attack you in any way they like, whether it's by setting a trap or confronting you head-on."

"And we're at a disadvantage because it's four against six," Shikamaru said, eyebrows raising in realization.

"Correct. You'll be given a home base marked on the map. If you manage to capture both of the other team's civilians and successfully take them to your home base, you'll win that round and gain points. If the civilian team manages to get both their two members to the checkpoint, they win. If you only capture one civilian or manage to escort one civilian to check point, it's half points."

"All right. So how are we dividing teams?" Sakura asked.

Kakashi flipped his book closed. "We've already chosen the civilians. The civilians will choose the squads to protect them."

"What? So…do we take turns or something, like dodgeball?" Naruto asked, crinkling his eyebrows.

Kurenai smiled at him. "Exactly. The civilians will be Lee, Hinata, Ino, and you, Naruto."

"Eh?! Why do I gotta be one, you know?" His deal with Tsunade popped into his mind, and he sighed. "Fine."

"Good. Now choose who will be your team member civilian."

"We get to choose?" Ino frowned at her prospects. She settled on going with Hinata- Naruto and Lee were way too… _ugh_.

"Keep in mind you may get tied up with that person," Asuma said teasingly, making Hinata flush red.

"Yosh! My youthful student, you have been bestowed with the honor of having your teammates protect you. Play your role well!" Gai said, tears streaking down his face.

"I will, sensei!" The other shinobi cringed at the sunset that appeared.

"All right, hurry it up, guys. The sun will be going down in about an hour," Kakashi said, eyeing the horizon.

"Uh, so…" Naruto turned to the other three "civilians". "Which one of you-"

" _I'm_ going with Hinata," Ino said, latching onto the girl's arm. She stuck her tongue out at Naruto and Lee, making Naruto give her a flat look. "Girls gotta stick together."

"I-if you say so, Ino…"

"That leaves you and me, Naruto!" Lee turned to him with a beaming smile.

"I guess so. So how do we choose teams?" Naruto asked the senseis.

"Naruto chooses first, then Ino, then Lee, then Hinata, until there aren't any left," Kurenai replied. She sat down on a log herself, folding her hands on top of her knees as she appraised them.

"Uh..." Everyone turned to look at him. Naruto smiled twitchily, opened his mouth, and…nothing.

 _Damn, who do I pick?!_ His mind told him he should choose Sasuke and Sakura- they'd been his team, after all. How would it look if he didn't?

But then again…he wasn't so confident in Sakura's skills, and Sasuke was being…weird. So… who else was strong?

Too bad he couldn't pick Gaara. He probably wouldn't even _need_ the other four then.

"Uh, I guess, Neji?" Neji was one of the strongest there.

The boy blinked in surprise before standing up and walking over to stand with them. "Good choice," Asuma smirked, before all eyes fell to Ino. "Ino?"

A large grin appeared on her face. "I choose Sasuke!"

 _Of course,_ everyone thought with deadpan expressions.

Expressionless, Sasuke just moved to the tree behind her, ignoring her squealing.

"Lee?" Kakashi prompted.

"Hmm…" Lee rubbed his chin, examining the genin with sharp eyes. "Who should I choose…"

 _He's taking this way too seriously,_ Naruto thought, twitching.

"You're allowed to confer, but make it quick," Asuma called.

Lee whipped around so fast Naruto thought he must have gotten whiplash. "Naruto-kun," he began in a conspiratorial whisper, "who do I choose next? You've already chosen Neji, a wise choice. Should I choose TenTen?"

"Um…" Naruto thought back to TenTen's match against Temari. Then Temari had lost to Shikamaru…the guy was a genius or something, so why not? "Go for Shikamaru," he whispered. "He's got all that strategy smart stuff."

"Yosh! You're absolutely right!" Lee whirled back around. "I choose Shikamaru!"

"Ugh…" Shikamaru groaned and rubbed his eyes before getting up and slinking over to them. "Dealing with two idiots in one night…troublesome…"

Ino frowned; she'd been planning on having Hinata choose Shikamaru next. "All right, Hinata, make this a good one!" she whispered.

"A-all right!" Hinata nodded determinately. "I choose Kiba!"

"Aw yeah! Woohoo!" Akamaru yipped as Kiba bounded over to her, making Hinata smile and Ino just facepalm.

"Naruto, you're next," Kurenai said.

"Uh, right." Naruto scratched his head. _Kankuro told me he was really strong…so-_ "Shino."

Everyone paused and stared at him for a moment, making him begin to sweat. "What? He's real strong, ain't he?"

Shino stood up almost silently, seeming to glide over to stand beside him. "Thank you," he said, making Naruto sweat even more. He had no idea what he was being thanked for; he just stood in place and tried to hide how uncomfortable he was.

"Okay, then I choose TenTen," Ino scowled. The weapons mistress sighed heavily before getting up and standing beside her, giving an envious look to the squad that had both her teammates on it. "Hurry up, Lee!"

"Actually, Naruto gets to choose last," Kurenai interrupted, producing a purple sash from a pouch on her waist. "Both he and Hinata will be wearing these. If you capture the civilian wearing it, it's double points. A win with both is normally five, and while only one is normally two and a half, managing to get the flagged civilian doubles your score, whatever it is. So both would be ten, and only the flagged civilian is five points."

"So special role gets special privilege. All right, which one?" Shikamaru asked.

Naruto gulped. Sakura and Choji stared at him from the logs, and he felt a sudden onrush of heat. "Um." How would it look if he slighted _both_ his teammates? Still, Choji was a lot stronger than Sakura…she'd probably want to be on Sasuke's team, anyway. "Choji!"

A wide grin split the boy's face. "Yeah!" he cheered, getting to his feet and jogging over. He high-fived Naruto on the way, while Sakura just frowned at him.

"All right, then. We've got our teams. After this first exercise, we'll have our rescue attempt round," Asuma said with a grin. "In that round, both civilians will start out _as_ captives, while their team tries to rescue them. We'll elaborate more on that when the time comes. For now, have a coin toss to decide which one of you gets to hunt the other first."

"All right, team leaders step up to the plate." Kakashi took a coin from his pocket and stepped between the groups.

"All right, which ones leads? I'd say Shikamaru should," Choji whispered.

"That would be the wisest choice," Shino agreed. The boy in question groaned and slouched before stuffing his hands in his pockets and stepping closer to Kakashi.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at Ino's team. "Uh…Sasuke?" she asked hopefully.

"Eh? Why should he be team leader?" Kiba grumbled. Akamaru yipped in agreement from his jacket, while Naruto eyed the fur enviously; it was starting to get cold, and he hadn't thought to throw on a jacket over his flak vest.

"Hn. Whatever." TenTen frowned, but decided not to argue the point as Sasuke stepped forward to face Shikamaru.

"All right, which one of you is heads and which one is tails?" Kakashi eye-smiled.

"I'll take tails," Shikamaru drawled, staring at Sasuke with half-lidded eyes.

"Fine with me." The Uchiha shrugged.

Kakashi flipped the coin several feet into the air. They all watched as it flew higher and higher before starting to fall down, landing with a quiet thud in his palm. He examined it with a cheerful expression before turning to Shikamaru.

"Looks like you're up, then!"

* * *

"All right, Neji, what's their position?"

"They're headed south along a route in the forest surrounded by thick tree cover."

Shikamaru hummed. "What's Sasuke thinking? That's ripe for a sneak attack…maybe he's expecting that, and has a trap waiting…Shino, you got your bugs on 'em?"

"Yes. I have two following each of them."

"Okay, good. Don't lose them. Neji, you take point. Naruto and Lee will go with you; Choji and I will circle around with Shino to attack from the rear. You guys are the quickest, so you're going to have to make it around to their front side in time to sync our attacks."

"What's the plan of attack, boss?" Naruto asked out of reflex. He'd jumped into too many situations and been reprimanded by non-forgiving chuunin and jounin too many times since his promotion to _not_ ask.

"Naruto will attack with his clones while Lee backs him up. Neji, you'll watch for anyone trying to make a diversion and flee. I'll be waiting for you guys to push them back towards me so I can catch their shadows. Choji's going to guard me, and Shino, you'll attack once they get close enough. To have attacks coming from two directions as well as a capture attempt will most likely disorient them. Once I've caught them, Neji's squad will take Hinata and Ino back to base. Hopefully, it'll be short and quick smooth sailing. And remember, keep downwind. We don't want Kiba's nose sniffing us out."

* * *

Sasuke didn't have a trap waiting.

Naruto wasn't that good at strategy; there was a reason he'd just gone and done whatever Shikamaru told him. But even _he_ would have thought they'd get attacked in the narrow forest lane Sasuke had been leading the group down.

It became clear to him Sasuke thought he could simply fight them off when the Uchiha made a beeline for him as Neji and Co. attacked. Lee went straight for TenTen and Neji for Kiba; immediately, Naruto noticed Sakura running to the west with Ino and Hinata.

With a cry of his signature technique, nearly two hundred clones appeared out of thin air. Naruto dodged into their midst and left Sasuke trying to find the real him, cutting Sakura off before she had a chance to escape.

"Sorry, Sakura, can't let you go!"

She glared at him. "Seriously, Naruto?"

He grinned.

It was then he saw Sasuke actually _did_ have a trap waiting; Lee stumbled into a wire on the path, triggering a large tree to drop down from the treetop canopy and nearly wipe him out. For a moment Naruto wondered why they knew how to set up a trap in that one specific place; and then, it occurred to him Sasuke must have known this was the most likely place Shikamaru would attack.

Unfortunately for Sasuke, Shikamaru was a genius.

He'd told Naruto exactly how many clones to make. As one, the clones took out a kunai and stabbed themselves. As the last one dispelled, Sasuke waved his arm, futilely trying to wave away the smoke that covered the ground.

Bugs swarmed the area, slithering up from the ground, raining down from the trees. Sakura and Ino shrieked in unison, while Hinata just smiled; the next thing anyone knew, Kiba fell out of the smoke and to the ground, unconscious.

"Dammit," TenTen sighed as her body stilled. A shadow stretched from her feet into the forest, where she assumed Shikamaru was lurking.

Shino appeared out of nowhere and held a kunai to Sakura's neck. "Now, Naruto," he yelled.

Smirking, Naruto rushed past Sakura and formed a clone, grabbing Hinata and Ino as gently as he could while still tight enough to lift them with him as he jumped into the trees.

"Hold it!" Sasuke scowled, rushing forward after him. He hadn't cared much about the exercise itself, but gone along anyway (Senju Tsunade was also quite frightening when punting office furniture out the window). While he didn't particularly care if his team lost the exercise, he didn't want to lose to Naruto- not after the blond had purposely lost to him on the roof. If there was one thing he thought they'd mutually understood, it was how insulting that was.

It was like Naruto was saying _you couldn't beat me unless I let you_.

Neji appeared in front of him in his Gentle Fish stance. "Out of my way, Hyuuga."

Veins bulged on the outer part of the boy's eyes. "Let us see which of our dojutsu is superior," he said with a small smirk.

"Yosh! A most youthful battle!" Lee shouted.

Sasuke twitched.

* * *

"Ten points to Team Shikamaru," Kurenai said with a smile, marking a tally hanging on a tree.

Kiba groaned and covered his eyes with his palms. "Man, we got served."

"No contest, with Shikamaru on our team," Choji chuckled.

"Yeah, well, we'll make a comeback this time!" Kiba pointed wildly at Naruto and Lee. "You guys are goin' down!"

"I'm sure that won't happen," Neji replied with a smirk. After a while his competitive streak had started to come out; he'd put Sasuke in a sour mood after winning a purely taijutsu match, keeping him occupied long enough for Shikamaru to snag his shadow. After that the jounin had stepped in, as Naruto had already reached their base.

Sasuke was disappointed with himself, though he hid it in anger. He knew Naruto had defeated Neji, so he hadn't thought the Hyuuga would be as much of a challenge as he had been- but Neji was probably more skilled in taijutsu than he was. He was sure if he'd had a wider area to perform ninjutsu it would have given him an upper hand. As it was, he was in a sour mood.

Sakura sighed. _Again I was useless,_ she thought, stomach churning. _Maybe I can help in the next round._

It was dark as squid ink out; Naruto couldn't see three feet in front of him. "All right, here's the plan," Shikamaru muttered as they huddled a few feet away from Sasuke's group; they were allowed a short break before the hunt began. "Neji, stick with Naruto like glue. You'll be able to see better than anyone else, and he's worth more with that armband. You two are going to head to this area," he pointed to the map, making them all squint. "Top of a waterfall. River leads right to the checkpoint. Shino, Choji, and I are going to attack preemptively, and Lee's going to run a straight path on his own."

"Uh, are you sure that's a good idea? He can only run at civilian speed," Naruto sweatdropped.

"We'll be keeping everyone else preoccupied. We can hold at least four of them in once place- that leaves only two to go after you and Lee. But they'll be expecting Lee to be with you, not on his own- and you're going to leave just enough tracks to tell them what area you're in, to keep them off him. We'll make sure to keep Kiba back, so he won't track anyone, so really, it comes down to several combinations. Sasuke with either Sakura or Ino, Sakura and Ino, TenTen and one of those two or Sasuke, or any of them with Hinata."

"So if two come after us, can Neji take them on his own?" Naruto rubbed the side of his head.

"I figure we'll be able to distract TenTen. Her fighting style is weak to Shino's; hard to hit a beetle with a kunai. That leaves two against three, and Ino or Sakura won't be enough to help, so it will most likely be Sasuke or Hinata left; that leaves one of them and either both Ino and Sakura or one of them to come after you."

"If it's Hinata and Sakura and/or Ino, Neji will be able to handle them, though Hinata is very skilled, so it will be difficult," Shino added. "And if it's Sasuke-"

"It'll be a lot harder. That's the wild card here. Better hope you get someone else," Shikamaru shrugged. "But Naruto can always swim on his own while Neji distracts them. Once I set off a fire, you two swim the river to the checkpoint. Don't catch pneumonia."

"Thanks so much for the warning," Naruto said wryly.

* * *

"Man, this is so boring," Naruto sighed, flopping onto his back to stare at the dark night sky.

When Neji didn't reply, he pouted. _Wonder what the sky looks like from Suna right now,_ he thought, mind drifting. Gaara didn't sleep, so the days he had spent in Suna he'd tried to stay up with him. They usually went and sat on the roof, with Naruto pointing out all the constellations Iruka had shown him when he was nothing but a lonely toddler who thought the stars were dead people's souls. Sometimes they stayed up for hours talking, just lying atop the covers of Gaara's never-used bed until Naruto inevitably fell asleep mid-ramble. The bright side of having a best friend who never slept was they could wake you whenever the nightmares came around.

The desert was beautiful at night- and cold. The forest of Konoha was a little boring and sometimes frightening in the Halloween-way to stare at, but the desert was wide and vast and unlike anything Naruto had ever seen. The moon was fully visible some nights; Naruto liked to imagine there was someone else up there, staring up at the earth like it was their moon.

Naruto's favorite thing about Gaara was he never told him to shut up. He admitted it; he said some stupid things sometimes, but Gaara didn't treat him like an idiot- even when he watered one of his cacti without knowing he wasn't supposed to. He was always interested in what Naruto had to say- that was kind of weird, actually. Not a lot of people were interested in what he had to say.

"Don't fall asleep."

Naruto jerked. "I'm not, I'm not," he replied irritably, waving one hand. Hey, if Gaara could stay up all night, so could he. Even if he had a failed record so far.

His eyes alit on a light in the distance. "There's Shikamaru's fire," he said, leaping up. Neji turned to stare where he was pointing before nodded and stepping with him towards the edge of the waterfall, reaching out to hold his arm.

Before they did, a kunai landed at their feet. Neji's eyes widened when he saw the explosive tag on it, quickly grabbing Naruto and leaping a safe distance away. The explosion demolished a small chunk of ground, leaving it to tumble down into the river.

Sweat ran down Naruto's forehead as he stared at the place where they'd been standing. "Seriously?!"

Sasuke was perched on a tree branch. He rolled his eyes, littering the ground with several more kunai. Neji dodged backwards with one arm around the supposed 'civilian' and the other held out to block anything Sasuke sent his way.

A moment later, he activated his Byakugan, not taking his eyes off the Uchiha. "You can come out, Ino. I know you're there."

"I knew that wouldn't work," Ino muttered. Emerging from the trees, she slipped out a kunai. "Come quietly and this won't have to get messy, Nar-" She paused, frowning. "Where's Lee?"

"Had a milk run to make," Naruto grinned. Lee was probably already halfway to the checkpoint.

"Just focus on Naruto right now," Sasuke ordered. He dropped to the ground and frowned at Neji, wondering who he wanted a rematch with more; him or the blond behind him.

He ran through the seals for his signature fire jutsu. "Duck," Neji said, making Naruto stare at him in confusion before getting the picture and dropping to the ground.

Ino grinned when a haze of fire spewed forth. "Yeah! Get 'im, Sa-" She paused when flames curled in either direction, licking the grass and leaves.

Neji's rotation ended. Sasuke's eyes widened briefly before he frowned again, leaping forward to combat him the old-fashioned way; with his fists.

Neji spun again just as he reached him, sending Sasuke skidding back. The two narrowed their eyes at each other, in a stale mate, before Ino's body suddenly slumped over.

Neji's eyes widened. "Narut-" He whirled around, only to find Naruto getting to his feet with a triumphant smirk.

"Now that's what I call winni-" Ino in Naruto's body paused, expression going slack.

* * *

Ino shuddered, staring up at the massive face above her with wide eyes.

 ** _"W_** **ha** _t_ a _r_ _ **e y**_ ou d _oi_ **n** ** _g in_** **h** e _r_ e, **_little girl?_** "

The voice was distorted and the visage even more horrifying. Its eyes looked like blood, its mouth nothing more than lines of teeth stacked over each other, as sharp as blades. It wasn't smiling- it was just _looking_ at her with something that looked like a smile but wasn't at the same time. Blood seeped out of its mouth and pooled around her feet, seeping into her shoes until they squished and she could feel it soaking her toes. Her hands were shaking, but her body wouldn't move, ignoring her frantic commands to run away.

The thing smiled, really smiled this time.

A bead of blood and saliva dripped onto her forehead.

She screamed.

* * *

"Ow," Naruto groaned, holding his head. "What the hell happened?"

Neji and Sasuke stared at him as Ino scrambled back on the ground, terrified. "Ino?" he asked in confusion, not helping the situation.

"W-what was that?" she cried, hitting a tree trunk. "What _was_ that?"

"What was _what_? The heck's wrong with you?"

"There's something," her lips trembled as she pointed at him, struggling to speak, "there's something _wrong_ with you! Y-you…what… _freak_!"

The clearing fell silent. Even Sasuke looked stunned, while Neji looked on in utter confusion.

Naruto felt something hard and cold form in his body. His mind went blank, limbs went slack; he stared at Ino as she shivered, a pit in his stomach.

" _Freak!"_

_"Monster!"_

_"Demon!"_

_"Get out of here, no one wants you-"_

_"You stupid freak!_ "

"Naruto, let's go!" Neji was grabbing him, vaulting them over the waterfall as Sasuke and Ino stared, and Naruto let the cold water wash away everything he was feeling.

* * *

He wanted to talk to Gaara.

What was he supposed to do when a friend- comrade- friend?- called him that? Looked at him with those eyes? What had he done to make her afraid of him?

The exercise had gone fine after that. Shikamaru's team won every round, while the sensei gave them each an assessment after. Naruto left before Kakashi could speak to him; he hadn't felt like being talked down to for slipping up when he was fighting Kiba or his mistakes after the incident with Ino.

He knew he shouldn't have let… _that word…_ affect the mission, but he couldn't help it.

He avoided them all studiously, his main delight being the endless ramen Tsunade treated him to. By the end she was weeping over her empty wallet, but he was fat and happy, so he didn't care much.

Naruto stared down at his bowl of noodles, watching the steam rise from it. "What's wrong with me?" he muttered. Where was his usual enthusiasm? Excitement for missions? Even the affection running through him for the food on his chopsticks was at an all-time low.

He just really wished he could ask Temari how to apologize. She was a girl. She'd probably know.

Or have Kankuro distract him by trying (and failing) to explain how his puppets worked.

Or sand surf with Gaara. They'd discovered that hobby completely by accident, but _boy_ it was a joyous day when they did-

Naruto shook his head. "Something wrong, Naruto?" Ayame asked with a welcome smile, leaning her elbows on the bar.

"Ah, nothing really. Just…I dunno." Naruto shrugged. "You ever feel…"

"Listless? Bored? Depressed?"

"Uh, yeah, sure."

"Don't worry, Naruto-chan," she ruffled his hair, grinning. "It's normal for everyone to go through that. A change of scenery usually helps me!"

"A change of scenery?"

"Yeah! Sometimes I go on walks or visit my aunt in a village nearby. Shake up your routine a little, add some spice to your life."

"All I really do is eat here, train, and go on missions…"

"Well, what kind of missions do you take?"

"Uh, usually deliveries and guarding people and dealing with bandits. Stuff like that."

"Hm." Ayame held her chin, eyes rolling up towards the ceiling. "So why not try something in the village?"

"Like what?" Naruto wrinkled his nose and set his chopsticks down. He'd lost his appetite, shockingly enough.

"Well, I don't know what kinds of missions ninja take. Why don't you go see for yourself? Just look for something new to do."

"Well, okay. I'll try it."

This was how he found himself perusing the mission log at the assignment office, leaning on the desk beside a familiar face.

"Something different, hmm?" Iruka rubbed his cheek. "I guess you could take a long term guard duty somewhere like the Daimyo's."

"Hm, I don't want to be gone that long. I was thinking something in the village."

"Well, guard duty here gets pretty boring. Just ask Kotetsu." They both glanced at the chuunin at the end, delivering logs from the entrance gate, and snickered. "Could always help pick up the slack at the Academy," Iruka teased, shutting whatever document booklet he'd been working on. "Been shorthanded since the invasion."

Naruto didn't really want to teach kids. It sounded boring and annoying, but why not? "Sure."

"E-eh?" Iruka had been leaning back on two legs of his chair, but nearly fell at his reply. "Y- _you_ want to teach at the Academy?"

Naruto scowled. What, did he think he _couldn't_? His stubbornness wouldn't let him back out of a challenge, so he plowed on. "Yeah! I'll fill in! I can do it, I'll prove it to you!" He shook his fist in his sensei's face, making him sweatdrop.

"If you're sure…"

"I'm sure, I'm sure! Fill out the damn paperwork already, sensei!"

* * *

Sweat ran down Naruto's face in rivers as he stood at the front of the class, inwardly panicking. _What the hell did I get myself into?!_

"Uh, sensei?"

"W-what?" he barked.

The eight-year-old girl who'd addressed him just blinked. She had funny-looking dull orange hair wrapped in a bun, with two chopsticks her mother had probably arranged sticking out of it. "Why're you so young?"

"Yeah! You're just a kid!" Someone yelled.

"You're probably a genin!" A boy near the back said.

A round of yelling exploded. A vein throbbed on Naruto's forehead, the rage he'd inherited from his mother rearing its ugly head as he slammed his fist on the desk, making a small crack appear. The children squeaked and fell silent, leaning way back in their seats away from him.

"Shut up, you stupid brats! You should respect your sensei! And I'm a chuunin!" _Except I'm not a sensei!_ Inward-Naruto shrieked.

_Okay, calm down. Calm down. What would Iruka-sensei do?_

He thought back to his main role model and the countless times he'd seen his behavior in a classroom setting. "O-okay, um," he gulped, taking a look at the lesson plan he'd swiped from the desk that the previous teacher had written up. _What the heck is quizlet A?_ "You're supposed to have a quiz today."

The room erupted in whines. _I'm just gonna wing it._ "But we're doing shuriken practice, and I don't want to hear anyone complaining!" he screamed, shaking his fist at them.

They sweatdropped as one, deciding not to tell him shuriken practice sounded more fun anyway.

Sweating up a storm, he led them to the outdoor weapons practice area. He recognized it from his own time in the Academy- it was usually where he failed and got made fun of. It was also where he'd first gotten into a brawl with Sasuke, which of course the Uchiha had won.

" _You're being a distraction."_

_"Ugh…troublesome…"_

_"Seriously, Naruto, you didn't think you'd be able to beat_ Sasuke _, did you?"_

Naruto shook his head. That was from years ago- the Rookie Nine didn't see him that way anymore. He was a chuunin with a respectable mission record now; heck, he'd taken B-ranks while they hadn't. They respected that, surely.

…didn't they?

"Okay!" He had them line up in a group, holding the clipboard that had been on the desk. There was a tally with each student's name, and he called off the first one. "Asakura Yuma?"

The orange-haired bun girl ran up to the spot beside him. "Ready, sensei!" she beamed. She was missing a tooth in front.

"Ah, okay, try to hit the target." Naruto gestured with his clipboard.

She nodded before taking out several shuriken and squinting, tongue peeking over her lip. _Should I correct her?_ "Before you go, quit the squinting. It doesn't actually help you see better." He still squinted now; couldn't break himself of the habit, but Iruka had always warned him against that.

"Oh! Sorry!" She relaxed her eyes, rearing back her hand. She let the shuriken fly, not hard enough to do much more than slightly pierce the board. They dotted the target at random intervals around the center, with one on the second ring, one on the third, and another on the fourth. "Aw! I didn't get it…"

"Well, that's all right. You aren't supposed to get them all in the exact same spot anyway. You just need to get them closer together nearer to the center," Naruto said, retrieving the shuriken for her. "Who wants to go next?"

"Me, me, sensei!" A boy with shaggy brown hair ran up to him before anyone else could, sporting an excited grin. "Watch this, Yuma!"

He threw three shuriken at the target. One flew over the top, while the other two landed in the ground.

The class burst into laughter. The boy's shoulders sagged, and Naruto cringed at the disappointed expression he wore. He felt bad for the kid- he knew what it was like to be in his spot.

When they'd quieted down, he took out three shuriken. "All right, guys, watch this."

He threw them at the targets, nailing the centerpiece of three different boards. Jiraiya had helped him with his aim some, but he'd also had a lot more time to practice after leaving Team Seven. The class oohed, suddenly seeming a little more certain he was an actual chuunin.

"Don't worry," Naruto said, ruffling the boy's hair. "When I was in the Academy, I couldn't hit any of them."

The boy looked ready to start sniffling, but brightened a bit. "Really, sensei?"

"Yep. I had the worst aim, even worse than you. Whole class laughed at me, too, but I'm the only chuunin out of my graduating class other than this guy from the Nara clan right now. So it might seem fun to laugh at people right now, but they could overtake you in the future." The students were silent, and he felt a little bit of confidence build in him. "And also…if you guys make fun of someone again, you'll have double homework," he said with a gleam in his eye.

"What!"

"Aw!"

"That's not fair!"

"Don't argue with your sensei!" Naruto shouted, bashing his fist into a vertical training log next to him. The class winced at the cracking sound it produced, cowed. "Now then, next!"

Maybe this wouldn't be so hard after all.

* * *

Naruto took it back.

"Hey! Quiet down!" He tugged a student from where he was standing on his desk, shoving him back into his seat. "You sit in your desks, not stand!"

Suddenly, he felt very, very sorry for all the trouble he'd caused Iruka. Who knew teaching was so _hard_?

"I want lunch!" A girl called out.

He twitched. "It's only eleven o'clock! You get lunch in an hour!"

She whined a complaint, sagging in her seat. Naruto let out a shrill whistle, quieting the room after a few seconds. "All right, who's going to volunteer for the bunshin jutsu?"

The class schedule Iruka had left for him told him he needed to teach them about the three standard Academy jutsu, test their sparring and weapons skills, and use the booklets stacked inside the desk for book work. Naruto remembered those booklets- they were _evil_. Among other things, they taught the student about village history, shinobi regulations, and some rudimentary math and reading and writing comprehension. Each booklet had a month's worth of exercises, and several worksheets for each day; when they went home, he actually had to sit there and grade them. At the month's end, the teacher he was subbing for would compile the grades for a report card and put the old booklets into storage. There were also tests and quizzes he had to use.

"Who needs tests?" he muttered as he walked back down to the front of the room. "All right, Yuma! You go!"

"Okay, sensei!" The girl grinned and got up to stand beside him, putting her hands together in a familiar hand seal. "Bunshin no jutsu!"

A puff of smoke signaled her clone's entrance into the world. It looked completely solid, and was fairly accurate to Yuma's appearance- but its ears were twice as large.

A round of giggling erupted. Yuma pouted at her clone's appearance. "What'd I do wrong, sensei?"

"Uh…" Naruto scratched his head, inwardly panicking yet again. "I actually don't remember much about this jutsu, because I use solid clones."

"Eh? Really? Solid clones?" A boy in front leaned over his desk, eyes lighting up. "Isn't that a really advanced technique?"

"I heard it's forbidden!" Another girl stared at him with wide eyes.

"Uh, yeah, it is. Jiji- I mean, the Sandaime Hokage told me it's because it takes so much chakra, and a normal person can't use it much. I have too much chakra to use the normal bunshin, so…I just learned the kage bunshin." Naruto decided to leave out the part about stealing the Forbidden Scroll. "Here, watch. Kage bunshin no jutsu!"

A clone puffed into existence beside him. Naruto had it pick up his clipboard to show it was solid, making the class let out a collective noise of awe.

"Sensei is cool!" A girl with green hair squealed.

Something warm formed in Naruto's chest. He couldn't stop a grin from forming on his face, something like pride filling part of the hole Ino had put in him. "Okay, so try and think about what you look like more." He repeated Iruka's advice almost word for word. "Don't focus too much on your chakra itself, but what you want to end up with."

"Okay! I'll try again. Bunshin no jutsu!" Another clone appeared beside Yuma. This time, the ears were a normal size, even if the eye shade was off.

"Good! Who wants to go next?" Hands shot up all around the room.


	8. Naruto-sensei

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note that I'm putting off Sasuke leaving for Orochimaru for a little bit, but I have reasons for that, and he will still defect at some point. I'm also only going to be doing a few fillers- those that involve Gaara and the Sand Sibs, specifically- instead of what I'm doing with Tuna Fish. In Tuna Fish, I'm doing a lot of the fillers and movies (because I love them and don't care what people say. :P But also because I feel it's important for Tuna Fish!Naruto to be able to make friends with the other genin in the fillers, and it has a lot of fun plots to play around with, whereas in Come to the Sand Side, he needs to grow away from them and spend more time with the Sand Siblings).

After an incident involving a paint prank and a banana peel and a girl spilling her lunch into the aisle (and promptly bursting into tears over it), Naruto managed to get the class to settle down and work on their worksheets. He sagged into his chair at the front, hoping to Kami they didn't ask him for help- he was horrible with bookwork.

He noticed right away several were glaring sullenly at their pages, pencils still. When he'd been in the Academy, he'd tried asking other students for help, but they'd brushed him off. Or he'd been told to quiet down and focus on his own paper. "Hey, why don't you guys make groups or something?"

Yuma, who had quickly arisen to the position of his favorite, glanced up at him with a confused frown. "Groups?"

"Yeah, like, work on your stuff together."

"Aren't we supposed to do it on our own? That's what Suzuki-sensei told us."

"Uh…well, Suzuki-sensei isn't here right now, and it'll probably be easier if you help each other out. Just form groups of three or something. Scoot your chairs closer together."

With much shuffling and some confusion, he managed to get them grouped off. Muttering filled the room, but he noticed several explaining answers to each other, filling out the pages at a faster (even if it still was slow) pace than before.

With a relieved grin, he settled back in his chair, looking around for the data log Iruka had told him in explicit terms he _had_ to fill out every day. He'd rated each student on their bunshins and made notes beside their names, his slightly sloppy handwriting contrasting with the prim and neat handwriting above it he assumed belonged to Suzuki-sensei.

The first day was rocky, and they often caught him off guard with questions he had no idea how to answer. Somehow he managed to slink his way through, and when he returned the day after, there weren't any tacks in his seat or traps on the doorway like there had been the day before (neither one had worked on him, he was the pranking _master_. And Iruka had warned him they liked to prank subs); instead, they were just yammering at each other as they waited for him.

"Good morning, sensei!" They sat up straighter when they spotted him, making his grin slightly more confident.

"Okay, let's do the worksheets first today so we can have fun outside." Doing homework in the afternoon sucked. Naruto knew how antsy he used to get, wanting to go run about, so he figured if he moved the morning exercises to late morning and early afternoon, he'd have just enough time to do whatever they had left and take end of the day attendance before they went home.

It had taken a little finagling to get foam kunai and shuriken, as he'd had to transform into a plain-looking adult chuunin to buy them (why couldn't people believe he was teaching the brats?), but he was of the strong opinion school would be a lot more fun if it had games. He brought them to a more secluded part of the training yards outside, dropping two bins in front of them.

"Everybody gets ten kunai and ten shuriken! This works like dodgeball. If you get hit, you're out, but you have to play dead. If you just get hit in the arm, you can't use that arm anymore. You can use whatever drops, but start with ten."

"Yay! This is more fun than targets!" The same green-haired kid with bad aim jumped for the box first. Boshi snatched up his supply and sent a taller boy a shark-like grin. "You're goin' down, Buki!"

"In your dreams, shorty."

The kids swarmed the foam weapons, scattering around the yard after Naruto used the whistle hanging around his neck. He was really starting to like that whistle.

Yuma made the first shot, taking out a purple-haired girl with a shuriken to the chest. Naruto grinned as he watched chaos unfold, kunai and shuriken flying left and right and into the air as they tried to tag each other out.

At some point his mind drifted, taking him back to the office several days before. He wondered if Team Seven had seemed so…what was the term he'd heard Iruka use sometimes? Dysfunctional. Naruto thought that was maybe exaggerating a little, but Kakashi and Sasuke and Sakura didn't look like Team Gai or Team Asuma. They were all close and asked each other about what strategy they were using and even hung out together quite a bit. Naruto couldn't remember the last time he'd done something with Sasuke and Sakura that wasn't related to a mission or a D-rank.

Maybe it was that time he'd gotten ramen with Sakura two months earlier? Or was it three months? The last time he'd gotten ramen with someone was with Temari in Suna. They'd hit Machiki's after spending a few hours in the desert talking about nature chakra. She'd let him have a go at using her fan, but he'd almost knocked them both over, and the gust he'd created had been small and uncontrolled. He'd felt better when she told him it was normal for someone just starting out and taken him to eat- it felt like Iruka taking him to Ichiraku's after a day spent missing targets and getting bad test scores.

"Sensei? Sensei?"

"Ah, what?!" He jumped a mile, sweatdropping when Yuma rolled her eyes at him.

"I won!" she beamed, holding up a fistful of foam kunai. The rest of the class lay or sat on the ground behind her, clearly pouting.

"I can't believe I got beat by a girl," Buki muttered.

"Oi! Girls are great too!" Yuma smacked him upside the head with a kunai handle, scowling.

"Yeah, you shouldn't make girls mad," Naruto agreed, smiling nervously as memories of Sakura punching him resurfaced. He had to say, though, Temari was much scarier- she'd gone after Kankuro real good when she found out he'd swiped the last of her dango. "They're really scary."

Yuma preened, sticking her tongue out at Buki. "I think we should try replacement next," Naruto said, hefting a small log onto a training post. "We'll take turns throwing things at people. Try and replace yourself with this log."

"I'll go first, sensei!" Yuma leapt onto a post a few paces away from the log, planting her feet at shoulder width and focusing as she formed a hand seal.

Boshi picked up a foam shuriken and tossed it at her. "Replacement jutsu!" she cried, disappearing in a puff of smoke just as it hit her.

In her place, a lizard appeared. "W-what?" Naruto panicked, poking at it. "Yuma?"

"I'm right here, sensei!" The girl giggled. She was crouched behind the post the log sat on, and stuck her tongue out when he whirled around.

"Hey, that's not funny!"

* * *

After struggling over a math question Boshi asked him about (the class spent five minutes giggling at him as he floundered before Yuma stepped up to the board and helped him out- fortunately, it seemed to endear him to them) Naruto waited at his desk as they filled out the last worksheet of the day.

Someone knocked on the classroom door. It tilted open, and a familiar blonde head peeked in, blue eyes searching the room until she found Naruto. Perplexed, he watched Ino shuffle in, wearing an apologetic look.

"Uh, hey, Ino, what's up?"

"Can I, um, talk to you in the hall?" She asked, pointing over her shoulder.

"Sure. And don't goof off!" Naruto threatened, shaking his fist at the class. He slipped out the door and pulled it shut after her. "What's up?"

A weak smile spread across Ino's lips. She fiddled with a strand of hair and averted her eyes. "I just wanted to apologize for the other day. I really freaked out. But my dad explained why I saw what I did."

"Okay…" Naruto had no idea what she was talking about. "And you saw…?"

"You know! That big demon-y thing you had in there," Ino said with a light chuckle, poking his forehead. He squinted at her. "My dad explained some people can make mental defenses, and that's just what I saw."

 _Demon-y…?_ It took several seconds, but it finally dawned on him. Ino had been _inside his head._

_Kyuubi, you ass._

"Right!" he laughed, pulling a fake grin. "Of course!"

She relaxed. "I'm surprised you're able to pull off such a strong one, though! I was only in control for a few seconds. But I guess that just means I'm not as good as my dad yet. But good job on having such a … terrifying construct." She suppressed a shiver. "It really was something."

"Ahah, yeah. Anyway…I better get back to the class."

She snorted. "I'm still shocked. _You_ , Uzumaki Naruto, teaching an Academy class? Really? You had the worst grades out of anybody."

"Ah…yeah…" Frankly, he didn't need that thrown in his face yet again. It was apparent in the classroom his academic failings were a setback when teaching, but he was doing fine with the physical aspects. Although he often had trouble consciously deciding how to explain something, when it came down to it he still explained things in a way kids could understand- he didn't give overly complicated explanations, and he still thought like a kid himself sometimes. "Bye, Ino."

"Bye, Naruto."

She watched him hurriedly slip back into the classroom, almost immediately start yelling. "You brats! Get off that table!"

"Make me, sensei!"

* * *

It surprised him, but he hadn't actually thought about becoming Hokage in a while. The ambition was still there, it seemed he had just forgotten about it.

It was his fourth day teaching when he realized what had happened. Sure, being Hokage would be awesome, but in the classroom- despite his screw-ups at times- the kids acknowledged him in a way no one else ever had.

It might have taken a few days for the respect to really stick, a few demonstrations to prove he was actually a chuunin-level ninja, but that aside…

"Sensei, sensei! Is this good?" A little blue-haired girl that reminded him of Hinata tugged at his pant leg, holding her booklet in hand. Naruto grinned and took it from her, a sweatdrop appearing when he saw the page filled out to the point there was almost no blank space. "I tried to figure out all the ways I could do the problems!"

"Uh…" He quickly snuck a glance at the answer sheet. He knew Iruka would have been able to check the answers on his own. "Yeah, you did great, Sahi."

Her grin could have replaced the sun. "Thanks, sensei!" She grabbed her booklet back and ran back to her seat, set on the fourth step by the window.

_Sensei._

The exercises had started to go by much quicker after they started working together. Occasionally he caught two students simply copying the answers off a third in their group, but, well. He had to give them credit for acting like a shinobi.

"Hey, Naruto-sensei, can you show us your tantō?" Yuma asked, eyes shining bright in her excitement.

"Yeah!" Boshi leapt up in his seat and punched the air with one fist. "I wanna see it!"

"Me, too, sensei!" Sahi raised her hand, prompting the students around her to do the same.

"Show us, sensei!"

"Show us!"

"Yeah!"

"I wanna see it!"

"All right, all right!" Scrambling back, he held up his hands in a placating gesture. The class went silent, and he fumbled for the handle of his blade. "No touching, got it?"

He pulled the short sword out of its scabbard, letting them ooh and ahh over it. "It's so shiny," a boy in the front muttered. "Does it get bloody a lot?"

"Not really. Just dull if I don't sharpen it."

"Where'd you get it?"

"Iruka-sensei gave it to me as a promotion present."

"I like Iruka-sensei!" A girl with a dot birthmark under her right eye beamed. "He's nice!"

"He likes tests, too," the boy beside her pouted.

"I like Naruto-sensei better. He's a lot funner than Suzuki-sensei. She doesn't like games."

"Games are awesome!" Naruto defended. "She doesn't know what she's talking about," he muttered as he put his blade away.

"Ooh!" Yuma raised her hand and waved wildly. "I heard some sensei from another village were coming today to help too since the teachers are so busy! Can we go see them?"

"Teachers from another village?" Naruto frowned and tilted his head. "I didn't hear nothin' about that."

"Yeah, Iruka-sensei's teaching _two_ classes since Mami-sensei was injured."

"Is that them?!" Boshi had scooted up so close to the window his face was pressed against it, nose squished to one side. "I've never seen them before!"

"Lemme in!"

"I wanna see!"

"Move, Buki!"

The kids crowded around the windows beside a few rows of seats. Facepalming, Naruto walked over to an uncrowded one beside them, glancing down into the yard. They were on the second level and had a straight view at the entrance gate.

Naruto's eyes lit up. A grin swallowed his face, and he felt more upbeat than he had in days. With the enthusiasm he'd been missing, he shoved open the window, hanging out of it as he waved one hand. "Hey, Gaara!"

The Sand Siblings had just come in through the gate. They looked up as soon as he called out, spotting him in the window while his students crowded around him. "Hey, Naruto!" Kankuro called, surprised. "What're you doing here?"

Naruto leaned on the windowsill and crossed his arms over it. "Just filling in," he yelled down. "Are you teaching?"

"You bet." Temari turned a teasing smile on Gaara, staring up at Naruto with a small smile, and elbowed him lightly in the side. "Maybe your plan won't be so hard," she whispered, "after all, if you want to lure a fox away from its den-"

"You've gotta be around to offer it food," Kankuro finished, smirking.

* * *

Naruto stared at the microwave window as his ramen cup rotated around and around, snapping his chopsticks together at a constant rhythm. "You _really_ like ramen, don't you?" Kankuro asked.

"Yep," Naruto said with a grin.

The microwave beeped. Naruto popped it open and took out his cup, taking it over to the table the siblings sat at in the break room. "You sure you don't want anything? I'm pretty sure Iruka-sensei keeps food somewhere in here."

"We're fine, Naruto." Temari brushed an errant strand of hair behind her ear and checked the clock. "Not that I think you're incapable, but I didn't expect to see you here. Didn't strike me as the type of thing I thought you'd be interested in."

"Me either," Naruto shrugged. "I was just looking for something different to do. Iruka-sensei suggested it. It's really fun, though. Although grading is a hassle, and I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to books and math…" he mumbled into his ramen.

"I'm sure you're quite capable as a teacher. The children seem to like you very well," Gaara said. "However, something seems to be bothering you."

 _Blunt as ever,_ thought Kankuro and Temari with matching sweatdrops.

"Oh…yeah…it's nothing, really. Just a thing with a friend that was…a thing."

 _As eloquent as ever,_ thought Kankuro and Temari with matching facepalms.

Gaara frowned in concern. "What happened?"

"Well, we- me and my old team- were doing this training exercise with the other genin teams that entered the chuunin exams. You fought Lee- he's doing much better now, by the way, back to bashing his fists into training posts for five hours- and Temari fought TenTen and Shikamaru. TenTen's on Lee's team. But anyway, we were pretending to be enemies, and I ended up getting stuck with Ino." A sour expression settled on his face. "She does this thing where she sort of jumps into your head and takes control of your body."

"A Yamanaka," Temari deduced.

"Yeah. And, well…she _jumped_ into my _head_ …"

The Siblings were silent for a moment, before Kankuro's eyes went wide. "Oh…she jumped…"

"Into your head," Temari finished quietly.

"Did she encounter your Bijuu?" Gaara asked.

Naruto shifted uncomfortably. A moment later, he remembered there wasn't any reason to feel uncomfortable talking about Kyuubi with the three. _Man, been too long since we talked._ "Yeah. She freaked out big time, and I get why- but I didn't know she'd met it at the time, and I was just confused. I mean, she was only in there for a few seconds. I dunno. She just…" He shrugged, looking down at his ramen. "Called me a freak."

Gaara's gaze grew sympathetic. Temari's expression darkened, and she refrained from drumming her nails on the tabletop; an angry habit of hers. "Gah, man, I'm sorry," Kankuro cringed.

"She apologized this morning. Her dad told her it was just a thing I made for defense against mental attacks; that anybody could do it. I guess I just feel like if she knew what it really was, she wouldn't be so quick to take it back." Naruto stared at the table sourly.

Temari stared at him, pity gathering in her heart. At least Gaara, even if he'd had constant assassination attempts, had her and Kankuro now; who did Naruto have in his village? The Iruka he'd mentioned, despite how much he cared, was too busy to spend time with him every single day, like the three siblings did.

If anything, it steeled her resolve. Making Konohagakure's Jinchuriki a Suna nin would be difficult, possibly dangerous, but she knew now Gaara was right; he'd be better off there. At first she'd been skeptical, but Naruto was like a second little brother. It felt wrong to see him so depressed.

Her thoughts were interrupted when Gaara, with slight awkwardness, lifted his arms around the blond's shoulders with a slightly focused expression. "I've been told this is a gesture of comfort as well as greeting."

Kankuro rubbed the bridge of his nose. Naruto stared over Gaara's shoulder for a moment, visibly confused, before a grin split his face and he burst into laughter. Temari relaxed and smirked a little; that was the expression that belonged on his face.

An idea occurred to her. She stood up, grabbing her fan from where she'd leant it against a wall. "Well, since I don't have a class for an hour, I have something to go do. Stay out of trouble, yeah?"

Gaara was responsible, more responsible than Kankuro, but even he got pulled into some hair-brained schemes when Naruto was around. If the blond wheedled long enough, he eventually gave in; that was how their house got filled with sand after a pranking mishap.

She left Naruto chattering away to her brothers, heading for the inner parts of the village.

* * *

The brown-haired girl behind the bar wore a uniform matching the middle-aged man Temari recognized from the last time she'd stopped by. She slid into a chair and ordered a bowl, watching the two make it together.

_So they're close, huh? Might be a little difficult convincing them…but from how Naruto talks about them, it'd be in my favor to make it seem like they're helping him._

"Teuchi-san, yes?"

"Hm? Yeah, that's me." The man gave her a friendly smile. "This is Ayame. You're from the Sand village, right?"

"Yes, sir."

"I remember you from a few months ago," Ayame said as she set Temari's bowl down in front of her. "You were in here with Naruto, weren't you?"

Temari grinned. "Yeah. He's a good friend of mine. He's part of the reason I'm here right now, actually."

"Oh really? What did you need? Other than ramen, that is," Teuchi said, nodding at her bowl.

"I was wanting to make a deal with you- a business deal, you might say."

"A business deal? What on earth for?" Ayame's eyebrows rose into her hairline.

Temari smirked. "I'd like for you to open a branch of your shop in Sunagakure…"

* * *

"See, I don't even know what this means," Naruto said as he squinted at the paper in his hand. He scratched the side of his head and flipped it around to show Gaara, feeling a bit embarrassed. "Not very good when you're supposed to be teaching it, yeah?"

Kankuro leaned closer and raised an eyebrow at it. "That's just a basic algebra equation."

Cringing, Naruto let him take it. "Yeah, but why's there an 'x' in it? Letters are supposed to make words, not numbers, ya know?"

Kankuro rubbed his cheek, frowning. "The 'x' stands for an unknown number, and is used because it is _not_ a number, therefore easier to keep track of," Gaara said, making Naruto go 'aah'. He leaned on the desk where Naruto sat, while Kankuro puzzled over the page. Naruto's classroom was empty, as the students had gone home for the day after spending several hours in weapon instruction with Gaara and Temari and indoor instruction with Kankuro.

"Say, who taught you math, anyway?" Kankuro asked.

"Taught me? Uh…aren't you supposed to learn from the book?" Naruto waved one of the booklets back and forth.

"Well, yeah, after someone teaches you the basics. And the teacher is supposed to guide you through it."

"Ah, Iruka-sensei did lectures sometimes."

"Yeah, but who _taught you_ what 'two plus two' meant?" Kankuro pressed, eyes beginning to narrow as a frown appeared on Gaara's face.

Naruto stared at him, clearly confused. "No one. I just picked it up from listening to class. Isn't that how it works?"

Gaara and Kankuro shot each other a look. Before he'd started killing or maiming whoever slighted him, even Gaara had worked with tutors, as he never attended the Suna Academy. "Okay, who taught you how to read?" Kankuro asked.

"Iruka-sensei helped me when I started going to school. I wasn't very good at it."

"No one did before that?"

"I learned by myself, if that's what you're asking."

"What about writing?"

"Writing?" Naruto tilted his head. "I just copied what other people did and it stuck eventually." He wrinkled his nose in distaste. "You're not gonna get onto me about my handwriting, are ya? Iruka-sensei's always doing that."

"No, I'm not. Naruto, who was your main sensei, other than Iruka?"

"Ah, that was Mizuki. He was the one who-" Naruto paused.

"Was this the teacher who attempted to kill you in cold blood?" Gaara demanded, making Kankuro rub his forehead.

"Well that explains some things," Kankuro muttered. "Naruto, have you ever wondered _why_ your Academy grades were so bad?"

"I figured I was just bad at the book thing," Naruto shrugged. "It was difficult, and I tried real hard at first, but it never got any easier so I guess I stopped trying so hard."

"Children," Gaara told him, "are meant to be instructed in this system. Although parents are usually the people who teach them how to read and write, orphans are supposed to be instructed by the workers at their orphanage."

"Yeah, well, I lived in an apartment, not the orphanage."

"An apartment? What were you, ten?" Kankuro blinked.

"Seven," Naruto said, shuffling the papers back into his desk. Kankuro grimaced. "What?"

"Nothing. I'm just beginning to understand some things." Kankuro eyed his brother. Unlike Temari, who'd been a bit skeptical at the beginning, he'd been mostly onboard the 'get Naruto to move to our village' plan from the beginning. Even if him and Temari had held crippling fear of Gaara before, they'd always loved him, and the change Kankuro had seen take place in his brother solely because of Uzumaki Naruto had saved their broken family. He'd begun to think of Naruto as a second little brother, not just Gaara's friend. He could also see how happy it made Gaara to have him around- and how happy it made Naruto to visit.

"Why don't you show us the sights? Sounds more fun than sitting in here," Kankuro said with a wave of his hand. Naruto grinned and opened his mouth, but he cut him off. "And 'Ichiraku's Ramen' doesn't count as a sight, okay?"

* * *

"Well, I've gotta admit, your thoroughfare certainly has its charms," Kankuro said as he ducked under a string light hanging a little too low in the street. Vendors and tents were lit up with light that radiated like a campfire, decorating the street wherever he looked. Some people had torches carrying fire, whereas others used lamps made to look like various objects like leaves or flames.

"This place is the best. It has all the food," Naruto beamed, pointing to a dango stand. "Gaara, you tried the Leaf's dango yet? This place has this cool blend of spices or whatever that they use." Gaara shook his head. Naruto grabbed his arm and dragged him off to try it, his rambling audible to Kankuro and Temari even as he got further away. "I know 'spices' sounds weird, but it's really good…"

"Hey, isn't that Naruto?" Temari turned her head slightly to listen to a voice she'd heard behind them. Kankuro had already taken out his wallet to pay for whatever the two got, but began to shuffle through it aimlessly to appear as if he were doing something. "Isn't that that guy who tried to kill you?"

"Yeah," the voice of Sakura replied. "But he's…different, now. I don't really know how Naruto knows them…"

"Figures he'd hang out with people from the Sand rather than us."

"Hey, don't be so mean, Ino. He's friends with them, apparently." A different voice this time, kinder. "Isn't that the girl that beat you, Shikamaru?"

"He forfeited- he totally had her!"

"Ugh…you people are so troublesome…"

Temari wheeled around with a smirk. Kankuro checked Naruto and Gaara again before following her; they were in front of the stand, talking about something.

"Well if it isn't the slacker," Temari said with a grin. The Yamanaka jumped when she addressed them, instantly scowling.

"He _did_ beat you, you know."

Temari's smile twitched. Kankuro rolled his eyes. _She isn't going to let that go for years, is she?_

"So what're you guys doing?" he asked easily, putting his hands into his pockets in a relaxed pose. Team Ten had been looking for eats, evidently, with Sakura in tow.

"Getting barbeque," Choji exclaimed with gusto. Ino shook her head at him.

"You eat too much and you'll get even fatter, Choji."

"Hey! Don't you call me fat!"

"Anyway, what are _you_ guys doing?" Ino turned away from him and planted her hands on her hips.

"Naruto's showing us the best places to get food 'round here," Kankuro replied.

"Oh, really?" Sakura gave the blond a long glance. Across the sea of people ambling about, she saw him waving a dango stick about, animatedly talking about something. He looked as energetic as he'd been when they first formed Team Seven- no part of him was still, his mouth the least so; her eyes flitted to the side and landed on Gaara, who was without his gourd for once. At first it had confused her on why they were so close, but the more she saw them together, the more apparent it became he was better friends with Gaara than he'd ever been with her or Sasuke.

But that didn't mean he treated them badly. If there was one thing Naruto was good at, as idiotic as he was, she thought, it was not abandoning his friends.

"Would you like to join us?" she asked, turning to Temari. She wasn't exactly sure who the de facto leader of their group was, but she knew the girl was the oldest. "For dinner, I mean."

Temari hummed, surprised. "I think we'll just keep wandering around. Naruto will want to catch ramen later. Thanks for the offer."

"Oh. Right."

"Ugh." Kankuro rubbed his eyes and groaned. "I better go pay for whatever they're getting." He slipped into the crowd and left Temari alone.

She turned to Shikamaru with a smirk. "We'll have a rematch someday, lazy. And I _will_ win."

"You won last time," Shikamaru yawned. Choji watched the two with a hidden snicker.

Her eyebrow twitched. "You know that wasn't a win," she growled, before catching herself. "Whatever. You and me, pal, _someday_." She cast him a glare before going after her siblings.

Sakura and Ino sweatdropped. "You know," Ino said to her friend, "I have a feeling you're not going to be able to get out of that."

* * *

It was nearly one in the morning by the time they looped back around to the siblings' hotel. Their stomachs were full and Kankuro's wallet empty; he cried over it in the corner as the other three stood in the lobby unsympathetic to his plight.

"I didn't realize it was so late," Naruto said, checking the watch Iruka had bought for him as a present for completing over a hundred missions.

"Oh, it's fine. We'll just be yawning in the morning," Temari smiled. "I'm sure the kids will make fun of that. You're probably the only one who'll be lucid, Gaara."

"The state of being unable to sleep does offer up some benefits, occasionally," he said with a slight smirk.

"Ugh." Kankuro slunk over to them as they stood outside the hotel room door, rubbing his shoulder. "I wear this pretty much all the time on missions, but damn if I won't be sore tomorrow."

"Should have left it behind like Gaara and I did," Temari chuckled. She turned the key in the door handle and swung the door open, checking her fan in the corner out of habit. "Come on in, Naruto. It's already late, another half hour won't hurt." The other three filed in after her, taking their shoes off.

"It's that logic that leads Kankuro to stay awake until morning working on his puppets," Gaara noted with a slightly amused tone. She bit her lip to keep herself from laughing, setting several glasses on the counter and reaching for the soda the refrigerator was stocked with.

"Is that why you _really_ wear makeup? To hide the bags under your eyes?" Naruto asked with a completely serious expression. A moment later his face twitched, giving way to the uncontrolled grin underneath.

"Oi! It's not makeup, you little brat!" Kankuro went to smack him upside the head, hitting thin air when the blond dodged. "Get back here!"

He chased him around the kitchenette, setting his glass down so suddenly it skidded. Naruto leaped over one of the beds, cackling, with the puppeteer in hot pursuit. Temari shook her head with an amused sigh.

Down on the street, Sakura glanced up, having heard a shriek. She saw a shape dart by in one of the second-story windows, eyes widening when she saw Naruto quite literally fly through the air, head back as he rumbled with laughter that was distant to her ears. Kankuro went lunging after him, and she could hear someone else laughing.

She'd gone to Naruto's apartment around ten, hoping he'd be there to go and do something with her and Sasuke. They hadn't spent time with each other in months, unless it was on a mission- it felt like her team was missing something vital, and she'd wanted to try and get it back. After finding nothing but an empty apartment, she'd wandered about for a few hours, feeling a bit too dejected to go home.

She stood there and watched him through the window, feeling as if she'd lost something, even if she couldn't put her finger on what. Eventually, he settled down when a closed fan bopped him and Kankuro over the head. Still grinning, he stepped out of sight, and a moment later a hand pulled the curtains shut.

She turned and left, heading for home.


	9. Step Two - The Comforts of Home

Tsunade raised an eyebrow at the sight in front of her. _Have I stepped into another dimension?_

"Who wants to go next?" Naruto yelled, hands cupped around his mouth.

"Me! Me! Me, Naruto-sensei!" The gaggle of students he was addressing crowded around him, waving their hands.

"All right, Yuma, you go."

A girl pushed to the front and sent her classmates a smirk. She stepped up to the square Naruto had drawn in the dirt with a stick and stood in between him and Temari, taking out several shuriken.

To Tsunade's surprise, the girl let the shuriken fly, hitting four targets dead center. "Go Yuma!" A boy that reminded her a lot of Naruto himself jumped up and down in excitement.

"I think that's a record," Temari said with a wink.

Naruto ruffled her hair as she retreated to the line of students with a grin. "Sensei, my hair!" she whined, slapping his hands away from her painstakingly put together bun as he snickered.

"I wanna go next!" Konohamaru fairly lunged for the square, sticking his tongue out at Udon and Moegi.

Tsunade glanced at Iruka. His class was mixed in with Naruto's for a bimonthly test on weapons accuracy, and half the time, rather than watching his students, he was sending Naruto almost stupidly happy grins. He was like a proud parent peacock, preening as its child finally stretched its full coat of feathers.

"All right, go ahead." Naruto made a show of taking a step back. "Better get back, last time you almost hit me with one."

"Boss!" Konohamaru whined as several students giggled.

"Maa, maybe you should get closer, it might be easier that way."

"Yeah right! I'll show you!" With a pout, Konohamaru turned and threw several shuriken at the target lineup, wincing when two of them thudded into the middle ring and two of them missed completely.

"Aww. Try again!" Moegi called out.

"It's a test, Moegi," Konohamaru muttered sourly, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"Now, now. A shinobi doesn't give up, you know," Temari said, retrieving the shuriken from the boards. She placed them in his hands, wearing a stern expression. "Now quit pouting and get ready to hit your targets, you hear?"

"Eep! Y-yes, ma'am," the boy sweatdropped, taking them in hand.

"Okay, get out of that ridiculous stance. You're not a power ranger. Good, move your feet a little farther apart. Now calm down and quit trying to impress other people; just focus on where the targets are. Calculate in your head how you need to throw to line them up properly, and…go."

Konohamaru reared back his arm and let the shuriken fly. Two landed in the center of a target, while one landed in the second ring, and the last in the third. "Yeah!" he cheered, leaping a full three feet into the air. "Thank you, Temari-sensei!"

She smirked. "Good. _That_ will be for your grade."

"Good job, Konohamaru," Iruka came up behind Naruto and set a hand on the student's shoulder. "Remember Temari-sensei's advice and don't rush yourself. You're still learning and practicing."

"Okay, sensei."

Tsunade went back to watching Naruto. A stuttering little girl who reminded her of Hinata went next, flushing heavily when her shuriken glanced off the board, even though one was dead center. Naruto bent down and whispered something to her, and her face lit up like the sun before she ran for the shuriken and tried again. That time, she received a score much like Konohamaru had.

Tsunade had raised an eyebrow when a paper crossed her desk listing all the shinobi helping at the academy after the invasion. At first, she'd thought it was a typo, but Shizune had assured her it wasn't. Out of sheer curiosity, she'd gone down to investigate herself.

Instead of finding Naruto's class in disarray, he seemed to be in his element, having made friends with the students in a way an adult perhaps couldn't while still being able to corral them when need be.

_He really does enjoy it,_ she thought, pushing off the tree she leaned against and stepping out of the shade.

"Look, everyone. Hokage-sama's decided to visit," Iruka stage whispered, snapping to attention a moment later. "Hokage-sama, to what do we owe the pleasure of your visit today?"

"Oh, you can relax. I just thought I'd come visit the students." With a cheerful smile, she bent down to greet them. "I see the shuriken jutsu is going very well. You guys should be proud."

"Thank you, Hokage-sama! Yuma did the best!" The Naruto-look-alike beamed. The girl in question blushed, staring at the ground.

"I can see. I think you might tie with Sasuke Uchiha for the record on your age group," Tsunade said with a wink. The girl's expression alighted like a holiday tree.

"You guys'll have something cool to show your parents at Parent Day tomorrow," Naruto grinned. Parent Day wasn't a good memory for him- as he'd spent every year sitting alone on the swing watching the students file in and out with their parents or guardians to speak with teachers- but he thought it was going to go well this year, with a class full of students he actually liked and wanted to talk about.

He'd have to make sure he actually got home on time and could say a proper sentence in the morning; even with crashing at the Suna Siblings' hotel for the night, they'd almost been late.

"My mom'll be so proud!" Boshi beamed. The other students often thought he was gloating, but Naruto knew better; Boshi's mother was a single parent who worked hard to make sure Boshi could live in a comfortable house, and Boshi wanted nothing more than to please her.

"Now, why don't we go inside and have an early lunch? I've got a lot more types of weapons to show you guys," Temari said with a grin, making the students let out a single collective cheer before following her in.

"They seem to like you," Tsunade said, amused.

Naruto shrugged with an embarrassed smile. "I guess so."

"Don't be so modest. You're doing very well." Iruka ruffled his hair. It was true that, after his nearly two-week period of substituting, Naruto was doing much better concerning book work; after a long talk in private with Temari after Kankuro had ratted his schooling experience out to her, she'd started tutoring him in their off time. It helped that she used ramen as a reward; his handwriting had already improved greatly. "You might consider signing on full time, you know." He nudged Naruto's shoulder playfully.

Naruto paused. "Aren't I too young for that?" he asked with a tilt of his head.

Iruka blinked and paused, rubbing his chin. "Well, technically, the only requirement is a chuunin rank. You have to take a test and be approved, but I see no reason you shouldn't be."

Eyes shining, Naruto turned to him with excitement plastered across his face. "You think I can?!"

"Don't ask me! Hokage-sama's right here!"

"Neh, neh, granny Hokage, can I do that?!" Naruto turned and bounced up and down, excited.

Tsunade stared at him for a moment in shock before a smile bloomed across her lips. "I'll put through the paperwork tomorrow. You can test with this month's batch of hopefuls."

"Awesome!" Naruto leapt up and punched the air, practically exuding his enthusiasm. "Didja hear that, Iruka-sensei? If I get past the test then I'll work with you!"

"You certainly will," Iruka replied, grinning.

* * *

Both children and adults milled around the Academy halls, walking around in pairs of three or four to various classrooms. Naruto had already met Boshi's mother, a kind-hearted if exhausted woman who'd pulled him in for a hug and thanked him for bringing her son's grades up.

Buki's parents were two stone-faced clanless shinobi who had had him sweating through the whole interview, not trying to intimidate him but doing so anyway through their sheer stoic-faced-ness. He'd seen them both ruffle their son's hair later, however, so he at least knew they weren't completely ice-cold.

He slipped in between the crowded hallways with a clipboard in his hand, looking for Aki's- the one who reminded him of Hinata- parents. Because he was a foreigner, Gaara wasn't required to meet parents, but Naruto spotted his friend letting a little girl drag him by the hand to meet hers anyway. With a beam, he waved over the children's heads before he lost sight of him.

Temari was explaining what wind chakra was to a pair of confused civilian women who'd come to pick up their daughter, as the girl in question Temari suspected would be a great wind user in the future. Kankuro was off somewhere getting coffee; Naruto didn't really know.

"Oof! Sorry," he apologized as he bumped into someone. The man he'd collided with whirled around, and Naruto nearly dropped his clipboard in surprise. "Eh? Asuma-sensei? What're you doing here?"

Asuma smiled around his cigarette, having been trying to put it away as several women gave him dirty looks. "Here for Konohamaru."

"Ah." Hiruzen flashed through his mind, making Naruto wince.

"Heard you were becoming a sensei. Giving up on Hokage, then?" Asuma raised an eyebrow teasingly.

"No way, old man! Nothin' says a teacher can't be Hokage too." Naruto stuck his tongue out, making the jounin chuckle lightly.

"Well, good luck. I gotta find Iruka somewhere in this mess." They both sweatdropped as Asuma tried to shimmy through the crowd, his bulkier frame making it more difficult than for the civilians.

"Naruto-sensei!" He turned when he heard Yuma calling his name. She stood in the doorway of a mostly empty classroom, waving with a bright smile. "Over here!"

Naruto made a beeline through the crowd for her, darting into the classroom and breathing a sigh of relief when he spotted only another parent-teacher pair at the far end. A woman sat at the desk, checking her watch- she had the same orange hair Yuma did, in the same style. "Koguchi-san?"

The woman glanced up. Her eyes landed on him, and instantly, her expression shifted from a semi-friendly one to a dark scowl. A pit of anxiety formed in Naruto's stomach as Yuma tugged him closer.

"This is Naruto-sensei, Mama! He's so fun!" Yuma began, oblivious.

"I know who he is, Yuma." Glaring, the woman snatched her daughter away, making a confused expression settle on her face.

"What's the matter, Mama?"

"What's the matter is that _he_ shouldn't be teaching here. You don't understand because you're young, Yuma, but he's a bad influence and you should avoid him."

"K-Koguchi-san," Naruto began, swallowing. Rather than being angry, as he might have several months ago, he just felt apprehensive. "If we could just talk about Yuma's grades-"

" _We_ will not be talking about anything." Koguchi stood swiftly from her chair and locked a hand around her daughter's. "As long as you're at this Academy, she won't be attending."

Naruto's stomach flipped. "What? Do you mean-"

"I'm pulling her out as long as you- you- you _freak_ teach here," the woman bit out, raising her voice. A few heads peeked in the doorway, and heat rose to Naruto's cheeks.

"Is there a problem here?" As if he'd been summoned, Iruka slid in with a calm expression, but his eyes were sharp.

"My daughter will not attend this Academy as long as _he_ works here," Koguchi scowled.

"Ma'am, be reasonable-"

"Absolutely not! How could you think of employing this, this, this-"

"The hell's going on in here?" Kankuro stormed in, ready to join the argument.

Naruto bit his lip and turned his eyes to the floor. Just like that, his 'furry little problem' had ruined something else for him. He hadn't wanted something this much in a long, long time- but he wasn't willing to ruin Yuma's future, even if all the other parents were fine with him being there, to get it.

"Ma'am, you're causing a-"

"-You can't just-"

"-I'm taking her out if he teac-"

"That won't be a problem."

The three paused, glancing at him as Yuma watched with wide eyes. "What?" Iruka parroted.

"I was only here as a substitute." For the first time in his life, Naruto acted as a true shinobi, face completely blank and hiding all traces of emotion he felt. "This was my last day. There's no need to pull your daughter out of school. I won't be coming back."

Yuma's mother relaxed. "Good," she said with a scowl, tugging Yuma to her.

"Bu-but Naruto-sensei-" she began, lip wobbling.

"Enough! He is not your sensei," Koguchi snapped, pulling her out the door.

Kankuro wheeled around. "Naruto, you don't-"

"It's all right," Naruto interrupted him, straightening the papers on his clipboard. "Suzuki-san will return tomorrow. Iruka-sensei, if you could finish for me." He handed the clipboard to a flustered Iruka, stepping into the hall and doing his best to ignore the fact that everyone there had stopped to stare at him. Parents, kids, teachers- even if a few looked sympathetic, several were giving him dirty looks, now fully aware of his presence. Across the room, Asuma was so stunned his cigarette tumbled out of his mouth to the floor; the women beside him didn't even glare at him, too busy watching Naruto walk towards the front doors.

Kankuro rushed after him, pausing in the doorway when he saw Naruto dart outside. "Dammit," he sighed, dragging a hand down his face.

"Excuse me." The little girl holding Gaara's hand released him, turning away to hide in her mother's skirt. The redhead pushed through the gathered crowd, muttering the same phrase over and over until he reached the door, rushing outside and leaving the hall in silence.

* * *

Temari had been worried when she'd finished up the work she had and rushed after her little brother and friend. When she hadn't been able to find them anywhere, even when Kankuro joined her, she started to panic.

Around five, they doubled back to their hotel room on the off chance they had returned. They were in luck; as they walked down the hall, they heard voices drifting from inside, as the door was open a few inches.

Temari relaxed a margin and peeked inside. Gaara sat cross-legged on the floor, arms crossed with a pensive expression as he stared at the wall. Naruto was sprawled out in front of him with his head in his lap, staring at the ceiling, face blank.

After a long minute, the blond sighed. "It's like nothing I ever do is good enough."

Gaara said nothing; Naruto hadn't meant it as a query.

"Do you think the village will ever want me? I know a lot of them changed their minds after the invasion, but…"

"I cannot say for sure. There are some in my village who have come to accept me, such as Korobi and Yaoki, but there are many who still fear and despise me. However, I performed many actions that were deserving of this. You've never done anything to your village to cause them to hate you."

"Besides exist," Naruto muttered. He turned his eyes to the purple headband he was fiddling with in one hand. Aki had sewn it for him, in case he "ever wanted to have a pretty headband instead of a green one". "Guess it's back to beating up bandits and delivering scrolls."

"Perhaps…you should ask Tsunade-sama for a different mission."

"Different mission? Like what?"

"Sometimes a break is needed. Often shinobi are sent to villages or areas on long term escorts or guard duties. Hokage-sama may know of a station in Suna for you to take."

Naruto blinked a few times at the ceiling before brightening slightly. "You're right. I should ask the granny that later. I'm sure she'd say yes. She seemed like she felt pretty bad about what happened."

As the two kept muttering in low tones to each other, Temari stepped back, gesturing to Kankuro. "I have a meeting," she murmured.

"I'll hang around for a while before going in," Kankuro replied, adjusting his puppet. She nodded and walked down the hall, leaving her brothers in relative peace.

* * *

"So, have you thought about my proposal?"

"Well, I was a bit skeptical at first. But when Naruto came in and told me he was staying in Suna for a few weeks, I figured he'd be around to watch out for Ayame," Teuchi said with a smile as he placed a hand on his daughter's shoulder. "She's old enough to be on her own now, and I think the experience'd be good for her."

Ayame beamed. "I've already mailed a land agent in Suna and asked about potential shops. Papa's going to give me some money for a hotel and a down payment, and I can stay in the shop when I find it."

Temari smiled politely, trying to hide her inner glee. "I see. You've gotten your passport and everything?"

"That should be coming in the mail tomorrow." Teuchi poured some spice off a shelf into the boiling pot on the stovetop. "I'll send off some ingredients with her to get started."

"And I'll be managing a shop all on my own until I can find a manager and their assistant!" Ayame gushed, placing her palms on her flushed cheeks as she stared into the distance. "It'll take a while to teach them our recipes, but I'm sure I can find people to uphold the Ichiraku's reputation."

"Excellent. I look forward to being able to have your ramen in my home village," Temari said with a wink. "And hey, maybe you'll find you like it there, visit to evaluate the stand often."

"The commute is only about a week," Ayame agreed, shuffling a new set of placements onto the bar.

Temari watched the two interact, feeling satisfied with herself. She knew how attached Naruto was to Ichiraku's; he'd been visiting ever since he was a lonely little kid alone in the rain.

Perhaps, with a comfort from home there, he may start to see Suna itself more akin to home.

* * *

"Can I have a drink now, Shizune?"

Tsunade sighed and tipped herself back in her chair. She fanned herself with some of the paperwork on her desk, even though it wasn't that hot in the office.

"Tsunade-sama, are you sure sending Naruto to another village for so long is a good thing to do?" Shizune frowned down at her, reorganizing the paperwork as Tsunade disorganized it. "The Akatsuki only recently made a move to take him."

"Oh, it'll be fine. They have a Jinchuriki too, so it's not like their security is going to be lax. He's not going to be doing much outside their village, anyway- just helping at their Academy, doing guard duty, running papers back and forth, stuff like that. Besides, could _you_ have said no to that face?"

Shizune winced. Naruto had been fairly depressed when he came in that afternoon to tell Tsunade to ix-nay the paperwork on his new career choice, but had left before Tsunade could ask what the hell was wrong. Asuma had given her the gory details later, resulting in a desk being thrown out the window…again. It had also landed on Izumo and Kotetsu…again. Naruto had also, again, helped them up from the ground, refusing Tsunade's attempts to try and remedy the situation for him. There was no way to force someone to attend the Academy.

He'd come back around later in the day with his new redheaded BFF from the Sand in tow (Tsunade didn't know the boy well, but whenever he came around the two stuck together like glue, and she certainly wasn't complaining) and asked for an out of village mission. When he had, Tsunade had just _known_ that if she said no, she'd be feeling guilty about it for too long to simply drink off.

"He was rather disappointed," Shizune murmured.

Tsunade scowled. "I have a mind to wring that woman's neck." With a sigh, she took a sip of the tea Shizune had set out for her.

Someone knocked on the door. "Enter," Tsunade called tiredly.

Kakashi strolled in, eyeing the broken window. "That's the second desk in two weeks, isn't it?"

"Yes," Shizune sweatdropped.

Sasuke and Sakura filed in after him looking subdued. Sakura in particular looked downtrodden, smile more strained than usual and a slight hunch to her shoulders.

"Finish your D-ranks?" Tsunade asked.

"Ah, yes. It was a little time consuming," Kakashi smiled, the curve of his eye a bit more stressed than Tsunade remembered it.

After Naruto left Team Seven, he was no longer required to perform any missions under C-rank with them. Technically, he wasn't required to do any, but he'd done so anyway until they'd started to grow apart. He never asked for missions with them anymore, and only went with them if Tsunade specifically ordered him to.

She supposed without his bright chatter, and Sasuke's increasing agitation at being forced to do D-ranks because of their genin team's membership being cut down, that Kakashi had his hands full.

She tossed him a scroll. "Have a C-rank for tomorrow. Borrow one of Gai's or Asuma's genin or something."

"Oh? Is Naruto not available?"

"Naruto's leaving tomorrow for a longer term mission in Suna. He'll be gone until next month." Sasuke and Sakura's faces slackened in surprise. Kakashi just raised an eyebrow.

"Are you sure that's…wise?"

"What's done is done, Kakashi."

"He'll be gone all month?" Sakura wrung her hands. For a moment, Tsunade gazed at her with a small measure of pity.

"To the exact date. It's a trial run for a longer mission in winter; that will last three months." At Kakashi's frowned, Tsunade narrowed her eyes. "He's got a special condition, yes, Kakashi, but I'll treat him as any other shinobi so long as I can." Jiraiya's intel told her the Akatsuki wouldn't make another move for a year at least. Besides, Jiraiya would be visiting him frequently; she wasn't worried. It wasn't any more dangerous than the training trip she'd heard Jiraiya mention.

"Special condition?" Sakura frowned in confusion. Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the floor.

"Nothing important, Sakura. Why don't you and Sasuke go home?" Tsunade didn't bother telling Kakashi to stay. He knew she hadn't been addressing him.

As soon as the two genin left, she turned to the jounin with a grave expression. "Kakashi, what the hell has happened to your team?"

The man sighed and put his book away. "Honestly? I think Naruto was our glue. It was a rocky relationship to begin with, but things were going fairly smoothly before the exams. Then he got promoted- Sasuke's jealousy concerning that combined with his absence have just made things awkward between him and Sakura. There's nothing there to balance them out. I'd almost ask for Naruto to be transferred back, but I think he's better off away from Team Seven. He's experienced more growth in these past few months than he had for years, and I admit, more than I gave him. He's changed enough that I think the dynamic wouldn't just be magically fixed if he came back."

Tsunade folded her hands together and set her chin on them. "I see. Sasuke, there. He seems rather unstable these days." She eyed the door, thinking back to the look in his eyes when he'd walked out. It was different than how he'd looked before the Land of Tea mission.

"For the most part, I think he's doing better than he was before the hospital incident," Kakashi said tiredly. "But I know he's still jealous, and frustrated at being held back. I think it's less of a superiority complex and more of an _inferiority_ complex. He acted like Naruto was an idiot, of course, but he also saw him as a rival. He feels like Naruto's left him behind. On some level, I think he feels like Naruto left him behind as a friend, too, not just as a rival in power."

"Troubling. I suppose there isn't a real solution to this. Just keep an eye on him, would you, Kakashi?"

"Yes, Tsunade-sama."

* * *

Rather than staying at the Sand Siblings' hotel for the third night in a row, Naruto let them get to bed early (sans Gaara, who'd retreated to the hotel's roof) and went to Team Seven's old training grounds.

He sat on the log he'd been tied to for a while, reminiscing, wondering at how distant those memories seemed. When he'd taken the chuunin exam paper Kakashi held out to him, it had seemed like just yesterday that they were trying to snag the bells on their sensei's belt; now it felt like an eternity ago.

The next morning he'd be leaving for a whole month to the desert. After that, potentially three months in the winter. A third of his year, spent in a different village-

His mind whispered to him it wished it was the whole year. Every year.

Shaking his head, he hopped off the log.

"Naruto."

He'd known Sasuke was there. Spending time with Iruka lent itself to him ending up doing chakra exercises, and come to find out he had quite the talent for chakra sensing. Iruka had been surprised, but quickly started to drill him on it; Naruto's range wasn't the best, but he could differentiate between people and had a sense for what their chakra natures were. He'd come to recognize Sasuke's as fire, but there were traces of something else he didn't recognize. The only other nature he was sure of was Iruka's water type.

"What is it, Sasuke?" He didn't bother turning around; he had to go forward to go home anyway.

"Fight me."

For some reason the " _Hell yeah! Let's go!_ " reaction he usually had when his rival (former?) uttered those words died before it started, leaving only a tired sigh in its wake. He was still disappointed from the afternoon's events, even if leaving for Suna made him excited. "I don't have time, Sasuke."

"Oh, really? Don't have _time_?" Sasuke locked his jaw, trying not to let how upset it made him show. Since when did Naruto not have time to fight him? It was usually Naruto challenging him- did he just not have time for Sasuke now that he was a chuunin?

He could remember someone else who'd told him 'next time' a lot.

"Yeah. I should get home. I'm leaving tomorrow-"

"I know. A long term mission."

"It's only a month."

Sasuke frowned at the grass. _Only a month._ There were a lot of only's with Naruto- _It's only two hundred missions I've done. Not that much. I'm only a chuunin. I'm only…_ If those were things that were just _only_ for him, why was it so hard for Sasuke to achieve? How long was it until it turned into "I'm only a jounin. I'm only going to be gone for five months. Two years."

Why was it so frustrating that the blond didn't even _want_ to fight him?

"No, fight me _now_."

Naruto turned around with a deadpan stare, irritation flaring.

"Sasuke!" A feminine voice floated through the trees. Naruto winced and Sasuke just sighed through his nose in annoyance when Sakura ran over the bridge, coming to a stop a small distance away, at the exact midpoint between the places they stood. "Naruto? What're you doing here?"

Naruto waved one hand, summoning a fake grin. "Just hanging around before I leave. What're you guys doing?"

"Oh…just…"

"We're just wasting time. I want you to fight me, right now," Sasuke scowled. Sakura blanched, glancing back and forth between them.

_Last time…_ She remembered standing on the roof of the hospital in tears as they charged each other. She feared that was how this exchange would end up- except Kakashi wasn't around to put a stop to it.

"Sasuke…I'm seriously not in the mood right now. Can it wait?" Naruto sighed.

" _No_!" The last Uchiha yelled, startling them both and even himself to an extent. He breathed in deeply, shaking himself. "I'm not leaving until we prove who's stronger."

"S-Sasuke…"

"…fine." Naruto withdrew his hands from his pockets. Sakura gave him a worried look, hands clasped together. "We'll have one spar for old time's sake, but-"

"Just shut up and get ready," Sasuke snapped. _Old time's sake._

Pressing his lips together, Naruto fell into a taijutsu stance that was much different than anything they'd seen him use. He saw Sasuke's Sharingan activate in the dark, and it careened towards him a moment later.

The moon had started to rise, giving him some light to work with, but Sasuke was still a tough opponent to work with. His improvements since their team days were apparent; he was able to block as many attacks as Sasuke was and dish out just as many, but Sasuke still had the advantage in the darkness.

Sakura quickly backed away several yards to give them room, the apprehension in her gut not lessening. The air felt charged, saturated with tension- not unlike the air of the hospital roof. It made her uneasy; worried that an accident would happen- or worse, that Sasuke would momentarily lose himself like he had before.

Sasuke swiped at his ear. Naruto ducked, dropping to his hands and swinging both feet out in a half arc along the ground. Sasuke leapt away, but he caught the edge of the Uchiha's ankle, making him stumble. Naruto swiftly lurched fully to the ground, rolling over and jutting both feet into Sasuke's side as he lost his balance. The action sent him further off kilter, but he recovered before Naruto could deliver a blow to the neck.

Naruto shot up from the ground with a palm strike that was blocked; Sasuke twisted his arm and tossed him several feet, but he landed in a roll and dodged behind a log to avoid the kunai Sasuke sent his way.

He could see Sasuke becoming frustrated. Naruto was starting to get used to the darkness, making it easier and easier for him to gain the upper hand. If he focused hard enough, he could track where Sasuke was in the field, keeping track of him even as they dodged around trees and shrubbery.

They landed back in the middle of the training ground, startling Sakura. Naruto swept Sasuke's feet out from under him and delivered a hard kick to the boy's abdomen, sending him sprawling.

Sakura clapped a hand over her mouth as Sasuke skidded in the dirt. _Is that…really Naruto?_ she thought incredulously, watching Sasuke roll to his feet, covered in dirt and grass stains. A scowl was planted on the boy's face.

He started on a set of familiar hand seals. In the dark, Naruto couldn't see his exact movements, and assumed he was going for a fire style jutsu; he summoned three clones to shield him, and they moved forward as a wall so he could escape.

He didn't expect them to dispel in one large plume of smoke as Sasuke came barreling through, lightning enshrouding his hand. " _Chidori!_ "

And Naruto-

Froze.

" _Naruto, move!_ " Sakura shrieked.

_Baka!_

Naruto broke out of his stupor and ducked to the side. A searing pain exploded in his right arm, making him stumble and struggle to regain his balance. He whirled around, seeing Sasuke's shocked expression as his arm embedded itself in a tree. Sakura stood a distance behind him, horror spread across her face, looking so pale it was easy to find her in the darkness.

For a moment, none of them moved.

"S-Sasuke…" Sakura stammered.

Shaking, Naruto raised a hand to his right bicep. The underside of his arm was fine, but the outer edge had been torn through as the chidori glanced off it- almost like a sharp piece of metal had cut him deep, with the combined effect of a burn that scorched most of his upper arm.

They stood there as his flesh smoked and rivulets of blood streamed down his arm. "Why…why did you…" Sasuke gaped at him, almost like he didn't know what happened. Some part of him had expected to use the chidori as a distraction, counting on Naruto dodging to perform a counter-dodge; some small, miniscule part of him had hoped the boy wouldn't.

It scared him, as much as he wouldn't admit it.

None of them quite knew what happened, really, or why it had happened. It just was.

"I'm…I…"

"It's…I need to head to the ER…" Naruto's voice was faint to his own ears. He didn't move.

At long last he turned and walked away into the night, one hand clasped over his wound, leaving them both in silence.


	10. What's Best

The clock hanging on the wall of the emergency room read nine-thirty when Naruto stumbled in, tracking blood. The edges of the burn had started to heal due to his beast, but he was still bleeding quite profusely- he didn't register it completely, as the pain had dulled to almost nothing.

"Ah…excuse me…" He muttered in the direction of a nurse. She had been carrying a clipboard to the front desk- the room was nearly empty; a civilian teenager sat in the corner with a bandage over his bleeding nose.

The woman turned, eyes widening when she saw him. The clipboard clattered to the floor as she rushed forward. "Doctor Suya!" she hollered.

Naruto blinked and squinted, trying to ignore a fit of dizziness. He didn't hear what she asked him next- he was too busy mentally cursing up a storm when he saw Tsunade come in through a door, stopping dead in her tracks when she saw him.

"-He's in shock-"

Tsunade rushed forward, edging the doctor out of the way. "I'm taking charge here. Get a gurney, now!"

"Hey, granny, it was-" Naruto meant to say it had been a training accident, but she cut him off, tipping him back onto something behind him he supposed was the aforementioned gurney.

"Don't speak, idiot! You can tell me what happened later. Just shut up."

* * *

Naruto woke up in the dead of night, the steady rhythm of the heart monitor rousing him from his sleep. He moved his arm experimentally, eyeing the bandage wrapped around his bicep.

"-the angle of the cut…the burns-" He could hear someone murmuring outside his door. "-if it had been anywhere else…you know what this looks like."

A deep sigh. "I know, I…"

Naruto frowned and sat up, ripping out his IV tube. He knew Tsunade would yell at him for that, but he felt fine. He flexed his arm as if he were throwing a kunai, pausing for a moment before he ripped off the bandages.

Most of the wound was sealed up, a combination of the Kyuubi's chakra and the best healer in the Five Nations, no doubt. The only evidence he'd been injured was a dark spot spreading over his arm like a bruise; except it looked much more fragile than a bruise, like there was black and purple and red just waiting to burst through a thin layer of skin.

The door swung open. "Looks like your patient is awake," Kakashi said in a light tone. Tsunade shoved past him, scowling when she saw Naruto.

"You know better than to get out of bed, baka!"

Naruto grinned at her. "Since when do I listen?"

Tsunade just rubbed her forehead and shook her head. She looked up suddenly, eyes sharpening, and motioned for Kakashi to step in and close the door.

Before it swung shut, Naruto caught sight of two ANBU outside his room. _What the hell?_

"Naruto. I need to know who attacked you."

"Uh…attacked me? It was just-" Naruto averted his eyes, scratching his cheek. "Just an accident. I was training, and…"

"Don't give me that bullcrap!" she barked, making Naruto wince. "I know what a chidori wound looks like. That jutsu is for assassination. You could have easily lost your right arm, and if it had hit your torso…"

Naruto swallowed heavily. "Well, yeah, but I'm fine."

"Naruto." Kakashi sounded uncharacteristically serious; it made him wince again. He stopped beating around the bush- Naruto knew they'd both known it was Sasuke from the beginning. "Did Sasuke do this to you?"

"I…uh…" Naruto moved his eyes to his feet, indecisive. What would they do if he did admit it? Would Sasuke get in trouble? Technically, they'd both been sparring- Naruto didn't think Sasuke deserved punishment. Or at least, he thought it would just make things worse between them. "It was an accident."

"Naruto, you aren't obligated to protect him. I need to know what he did." Naruto let out a long sigh, finally meeting his former sensei's gaze.

"We were fighting, okay? Like the hospital. It was the heat of the moment, he didn't mean to hit me."

They both frowned.

"T-that's not true, Tsunade-sama!" Sakura stammered from the door.

"Wha- Sakura?!"

"Sakura, what're you doing in here?" Tsunade gave her a sharp look, eyes narrow.

Sakura gulped before stepping fully into the room, hands shaking from nervousness. "That isn't everything that happened."

"Sakura, just let me handle it-" Naruto began.

"No! You don't have to protect Sasuke-kun, Naruto." Tears were beginning to gather in her eyes. "Sasuke went and found Naruto and demanded a fight. Naruto didn't want to- he _told_ Sasuke he didn't want to." The tension in the air was thick enough to slice with a knife. "But Sasuke wouldn't take no for an answer. Naruto agreed, but only to a spar. Sasuke shouldn't have…he shouldn't have…used _that_ jutsu. They weren't even using ninjutsu, only taijutsu!"

They were all silent for a minute after her declaration, the only sound being her slightly ragged breathing.

"I see."

"Baa-chan, you can't-"

"Enough, Naruto. You need to rest. It's several days to Sunagakure."

"E-eh?" He startled, having been expecting her to put his mission on hold.

She reached over and poked him on the forehead, shoving him back onto the mattress. "Go to sleep, brat. I want you at the gate at nine sharp."

Grumbling, Naruto rubbed his forehead, watching her exit his hospital room. Sakura gave him a short stare full of something he couldn't decipher, while Kakashi paused in the doorway. "Naruto."

"Yeah, sensei?"

The man sighed. "I'm sorry." Naruto stared at him in confusion. He glanced over his shoulder, the usual cheerful curve of his eye back in place. "You really are a great shinobi, you know."

"I…thank…you?" The door slid shut before Naruto could get his wits about him.

* * *

Naruto checked out a mere four hours later, having slept like a log once he got his mind to quiet down. His dreams were full of Sharingan eyes gazing at him full of hatred and contempt, the crackle of electricity the background noise as Sasuke yelled his name.

By the time he gathered the whole of his clothes and packed them up- he didn't have so much it would present a travelling issue- and made it to the Hokage Tower, he had only thirty minutes before he was to meet the Sand Siblings at the gate. He jogged to the upper levels and flashed the secretary a wave, ignoring her when she raised a hand to keep him from entering.

With a knock, he slid the door open, slipping halfway in before he realized there were several jounin inside. "Uh…oops…"

Tsunade rolled her eyes. "It's all right, Naruto. What is it, since it obviously couldn't wait?" Amusement tinged her voice, and a few of the jounin smirked.

"Erm…" Naruto stepped in and shifted awkwardly. He couldn't have just waited a month to ask, could he? "I wanted to make a, uh, request."

His eyes darted around. He recognized Asuma and Kurenai, as well as the spandex-clad Gai. He'd seen the one with the senbon in his mouth from the chuunin exams around- as well as the scary purple-haired proctor lady obsessed with dango. Faintly, he wondered why the heck so many were all gathered in the office right that moment.

"And what might that be?" Tsunade folded her hands together and watched him over her knuckles.

Inwardly cringing, Naruto decided to just get it over with. "Ah…when I get back from my mission to Suna, could you, maybe…not put me on any missions with Sasuke or Sakura anymore?"

Dead silence. Kakashi stared at him out of the corner of his eye.

"Are you asking," Tsunade paused, fingers forming a steeple, "for a legal block against going on missions with those two?"

"A l-legal block? Uh..probably only Sasuke, then-" Naruto realized what he'd said and winced, rubbing the back of his head. "Uh…yeah. Whatever."

"Very well. Request granted. Uchiha Sasuke will not be allowed on missions with you anymore."

Naruto's mouth went dry. He'd been hesitant to ask, but having it put into words, officially, felt odd. "Uh…thanks. See you next month, then," he finished lamely.

Tsunade nodded at him. He slunk back through the door, leaving the room in silence.

"…well, hell, the Uchiha really must've snapped if his teammate's scared of him now," Genma said after a lengthy pause.

* * *

Not only were the Sand Siblings at the gate, but Team Ten and a small cart full of goods such as flour and spices were parked at the entrance as well.

"…thanks for helping out. We've been shorthanded," Shikamaru was saying.

"Sure. It was a great chance to evaluate the Leaf's next generation's potential." Kankuro wore a smirk, while the small crowd of kids said goodbye to Temari.

"I'm gonna be an awesome kunoichi just like you someday, Temari-sensei!" Moegi said, stars in her eyes.

Temari chuckled. "I'm honored. Work hard, now."

"Ayame? What're you doing here?" Naruto tilted his head to peer around the cart, watching the woman he'd known since he was a toddler fiddle with a strap.

She whirled around with a beaming grin, a ladle in one hand. "Papa and I are opening a branch of Ichiraku's Ramen in Suna!" she chattered excitedly. "I'm going to be there for a few months getting it up and running!"

Naruto lit up like a Rinne Festival tree. "Are you kidding?! That's awesome! Yeah! Ichiraku's every single day!" He leapt into the air and shot his fist towards the sky, wincing when his arm smarted.

His yelling attracted Gaara's amused attention, but the redhead narrowed his eyes when he saw his flinch. "Naruto," he said.

Naruto wheeled around to face him. "Yeah?"

"Are you injured?"

Naruto froze. "Uh…" His hesitation was all the answer his friend needed.

"Where?" Gaara demanded, narrowing his eyes as he looked him over. Naruto sweatdropped at the feeling of being examined.

"Just a training accident. Nothing to worry abou-"

"Hey, Naruto," a new voice called out. Naruto felt his impending doom slam down over his head like a boulder as Izumo and Kotetsu strolled up, Kotetsu having been the one who'd called out. "Just came from Tsunade-sama's. Did you really get a mission restraining order against Sasuke?"

Dead silence, again.

"Hey, kids. Do me a favor and go practice your shuriken jutsu, okay?" Temari leaned down and winked at the students. Konohamaru cast Naruto a worried frown as they nodded and ran off, a single herd.

"Yeah," Izumo went on, not noticing Naruto's frantic waving behind the Sand Siblings' backs. "Heard he put you in the hospital."

Naruto's cloud of doom shriveled up to nothing but a personal raincloud over his head as the trio turned on their heel as one to stare at him. "The Uchiha put you in the hospital? When?" Kankuro asked incredulously.

"L…last night…"

"Knew we should've just dragged him off to the hotel," Kankuro muttered.

"Where are you injured?" Naruto had to give Gaara credit for not being derailed from his goal. Or perhaps he just had a one-track mind.

With a sigh, he unwrapped the bandage around his arm. Ayame gasped and clapped a hand over her mouth, her grip on the ladle slackening enough it tipped down towards the ground.

Kankuro let out a whistle, leaning down slightly to examine it. "Damn, what'd he do, catapult you into a stone tree?"

"No. I had a third degree burn and my arm got cut through pretty bad, but baa-chan healed it real good. Plus, the, you know…" Giant nine-tailed fox in his body.

"Sasuke did that to you?" Ino asked, clearly shocked. "Why were you two fighting?"

"I'm…not sure, really." Gaara stepped closer and began doing up his bandage for him again. "He just wanted a fight. I said I'd spar with him."

She frowned. "Did you really need to get a restraining order against him? I'm sure it was an accident."

Shikamaru just stared at Naruto with narrow, pensive eyes. "I dunno," he said in a bored tone, folding his arms behind his head. "Seems like A-rank assassination ninjutsu don't really belong in a normal old spar."

Naruto glanced at the dark look on Gaara's face and laughed nervously. "Are you sure it's all right?" Ayame leaned in and poked the part of his shoulder that wasn't burnt with the handle of her ladle, eyebrows pulled together in concern.

"It'll be fine, really."

"Well, I guess we should be leaving. Want to get an early start," Temari said lightly, giving Team Ten a half-wave. "We'll be escorting Ayame-san to Suna as well."

Naruto waved at Asuma's students with his good arm. "See you later, guys," he called over his shoulder as they walked away. Ayame grabbed the bridle of her donkey and led it forward; Naruto fell into step beside her with a cheerful grin. Kankuro came up behind while Temari circled to the other side of the cart, and Gaara stayed stubbornly at his side.

The siblings eyed each other in a moment of agreement.

Any traces of doubt had been obliterated from their minds; no matter what, they were making Naruto a Sunagakure citizen before the year was up.

* * *

There had been a variety of things on Tsunade's agenda when she called her best jounin in for a meeting. For one, she was ix-naying any more shared genin team exercises. Secondly, she was having two lucky participants get put on Uchiha-watching duty, one of which was Kakashi by default.

Genma and Anko ended up playing rock-paper-scissors for it. Genma had just sighed in dejection when she won her "freedom", while Anko vaulted herself out a window cackling.

"So how dangerous is the kid, anyway?" Asuma fiddled with his unlit cigarette. "Do I need to keep Ino, Shikamaru and Choji away from him outside of just stopping any joint training exercises?"

"I don't believe he's gotten to that point yet," Kakashi said. "I think we can derail anymore bad behavior now, before it gets any worse. He's acting out, but he's not traitorous yet."

"He's shown a lack of judgment and instability concerning his own emotions, which I think is the main reason the incident with Naruto happened," Tsunade said, taking a sip of the sake set in front of her. "But I can't ignore the fact he used a jutsu like that on his own comrade, so you need to make sure he doesn't use it again," she said, giving Kakashi a stern look. "If he keeps disobeying, I'll have his chakra sealed until he gets the picture."

"I understand, Tsunade-sama. I think having Naruto away a while will help. It was stupid of me to let their rivalry build like this."

"Is that the main reason you sent Naruto on that mission?" Kurenai asked. "I thought you'd keep him back with his injury."

Tsunade waved her hand. "There wasn't a reason to keep him here. He'll be healed by tomorrow anyway. Besides, I sent him away so he'd be safe from anything that happens with Sasuke while they both cool off," she grimaced. "He needs a break anyway. Kami knows this village seems determined to eat away at what happiness he finds."

Asuma cringed. "That was pretty brutal yesterday," he agreed.

"That is such a shame that someone would so doggedly smother one's youthful flames and determination to do something so honorable," Gai said, rivers of tears leaking from his eyes. "There's no greater calling than to teach those who are young!"

The other shinobi winced and edged away from him and his Gai-ness.

"Well, anyway. We've finished here. You're all free to leave."

"Yes, Tsunade-sama." They nodded in sync before disappearing in puffs of smoke, leaving their Hokage to lean back in her chair and sigh as she rubbed her forehead.

* * *

"Oh, hey, Asuma-sensei," Shikamaru called, strolling up to the man before he could exit the restaurant Choji had dragged him and Ino to. "I have a question for you."

"Hm? What is it, Shikamaru?" Asuma moved out of the doorway and leaned against the wall.

"Well, as you know, we had some foreign ninja over to help out at the Academy." Shikamaru eyed him with a gaze that was too perceptive. "Happened to see Naruto there."

Asuma arched one eyebrow. "Did you?"

"Yeah. Also saw some civilian woman humiliate him in front of a crowd. It reminded me a lot of people treat him that way- always have. And he may be an idiot," Shikamaru's eyes flitted to the side, watching a table break into laughter, "but he didn't deserve that. Asked my dad about it once."

"And what's your question now, then?"

"Hm." Shikamaru's eyes returned to him. "You know, people always said he'd be the one putting his team in danger, what with how loud and knuckleheaded he was. But I think we both know he's not the one putting people in danger." Choji had overeaten the night before at dinner, resulting in a short trip to the hospital. Shikamaru had poked his head into the hall when he'd heard yelling, and lo and behold, a passed out blond Jinchuriki with a torn-up arm had rolled through.

The two were silent for a moment, appraising one another.

"Do I need to keep Ino and Choji away from him?"

Behind them, Ino started yelling at Choji for swiping food off her plate. Asuma let out a slow breath and eyed the female member of his team. Sasuke wasn't a great person to have a crush on at the moment. "Hokage-sama says she thinks we can fix the bridge before it collapses," he said, taking out a cigarette to twirl around.

"A bridge in danger of collapsing is already compromised."

"What do you think, Shikamaru?"

Shikamaru was a slacker, a lazy one at that, but Asuma knew if there was one thing someone with his IQ level wouldn't let happen, it was his teammates falling into danger when he could have prevented it.

He watched Shikamaru's eyes, calculating and deceptively bored.

"…I'll make sure we don't cross paths."

"I think that'd be best."

* * *

"All right, you three." Kurenai planted her hands on her hips and watched her team turn their attention away from the targets lining the trees. "I think that's enough for today. Head on home."

Kiba let out a whoop, galloping towards the path leading into the village. "I bet we can snag some barbecue on the way home, eh boy?"

Akamaru yipped in agreement, running at his heels.

"Thank you, sensei," Hinata said, giving her a smile before starting home at a slower pace. Shino fell into step beside her.

"Shino, hold on for a moment, will you?"

The boy paused. Hinata glanced back at them, but didn't stop- she knew Kurenai didn't want her to stay.

As soon as the Hyuuga had left, Shino turned around and retreated to the clearing, stopping in front of his teacher. "What is it, Kurenai-sensei?" Kurenai had become so used to his face being covered she swore there was an almost curious gleam to his glasses.

She took a deep breath. "Something very serious happened yesterday. No one's in any danger, but I need you to be careful and watch out for Kiba and Hinata." Shino tensed, but waited for her to go on. "I'm not telling them because I don't want Kiba to react recklessly- you know how brash he can be; and I don't want to needlessly scare Hinata. You're smart, Shino, and if I had to leave someone in charge of this team while I couldn't be, it would be you."

"I understand. What's happened, sensei?"

For a moment, Kurenai wondered whether or not she was making the right decision. If Kakashi did get things ironed out with Sasuke, she didn't want his peers to unnecessarily avoid him. But…her team's safety always came first.

"Last night, Uchiha Sasuke found Uzumaki Naruto in the woods and demanded that he fight him. According to Haruno Sakura, he refused to take no for an answer, until Naruto gave in and agreed to a spar. It was purely taijutsu until Sasuke used the chidori technique Kakashi taught him against Naruto. If you aren't familiar with it, it's the lightning-based attack he used against Gaara in the chuunin exams. However, it's also an A-rank assassination jutsu; needless to say, it's not something appropriate to use in a match verbally acknowledged as only a spar, with a comrade no less. Naruto was injured and took himself to the hospital, where he passed out shortly thereafter due to blood loss and shock. Due to Tsunade-sama being there to watch over him personally, he's still able to leave for a month-long deployment in Sunagakure today. I'm sure you heard the rumors about the hospital incident."

Shino was quiet for several seconds. "You believe Uchiha Sasuke may become violent towards others," he deduced.

"Unfortunately. Tsunade-sama is attempting to remedy the situation. I don't want you to treat him badly, but…if there's even a possibility…"

"I will make sure our involvement with him is at a minimum."

"…I think that would be best."

* * *

Gai wanted to believe his rival would be able to get through to his wayward student; wanted to trust Kakashi to handle the situation. However, even the best teachers couldn't stop their subordinates from going down a path they were truly determined to walk down; the Sandaime and Orochimaru were proof enough of that.

He stood watching TenTen and Neji spar, arms crossed over his chest. Lee was on the sidelines cheering, having been taking a break to let himself rest.

It was an uphill battle for his student every day. All he wanted was to be a strong shinobi that could protect the village, but he'd been set back at every turn. When he'd fought Gaara, no one had thought he would even be able to recover; but he had, and he never gave up for one second.

Gai did not want to see Lee facing down the business end of a chidori.

He didn't actually think there was much chance of Sasuke attacking his students, at least consciously. But he'd already seen Sasuke grow bitter towards Neji for besting him.

There was a saying in the shinobi world: being cautious was better than being dead.

"Neji, come over here for a moment. I want to speak with you. Lee, you fill in."

"Yosh! Yes, sensei!" Lee boomed, leaping to take Neji's spot as the Hyuuga relaxed. Neji retreated from the middle of the clearing, walking over to Gai before the jounin nodded his head and walked several more yards away until they were out of TenTen and Lee's earshot.

"What is it, sensei? You are…" Neji narrowed his eyes at him, looking suspicious. "Unusually serious."

Gai grinned, but the usual gleam wasn't there. "That is because our topic of discussion is a serious one. I would rather you keep this to yourself, Neji." Frowning, the boy nodded. "I have chosen not to tell Lee or TenTen to keep them from worrying. I also fear Lee would attempt to help the situation himself. TenTen I feel would be able to smartly handle this knowledge, but I'm loathe to keep only one student out of the loop."

"What situation, exactly?"

Gai sighed and tipped his head back, feeling older than his years. "Last night, Naruto showed up in the emergency room of the hospital. Sasuke and him had been sparring, although Naruto was unwilling it seems, when Sasuke used his chidori on him."

Neji's eyebrows rose. "Were his injuries serious?"

"Well…the Uzumaki blood gives him a strength and vitality of body that helped him," Gai said, hedging around the subject of the Kyuubi, "and Tsunade-sama was there to personally attend to him. However, an average shinobi most likely would have lost the use of their arm for a month at least. The burn was severe." Neji's eyes visibly widened. "The Uchiha boy…he is in a precarious place at the moment. He's already had some disagreements with the Hokage, but this is the second time he's seen fit to use such a technique on a comrade, as I'm sure you've heard."

Neji nodded slowly. "So…you wish for me to…"

"Yes. It is unfortunate, but… I will trust you with this, Neji."

"…I'll make sure if we see him we are going in the opposite direction," Neji said quietly.

"I believe that that would be best, Neji."

* * *

"Sasuke."

"What, Kakashi?"

Kakashi's visible eye narrowed. "Is that any way to address your jounin sensei?" He dropped down from the tree branch he'd been sitting on.

Sasuke turned and cast him an irritable look. A myriad of emotions swam in his eyes; guilt, anger, jealousy, confusion. Kunai and shuriken were lodged in various targets around Training Ground Seven. "I'm here to talk about last night," Kakashi said, pretending to read his book.

"We were fighting. What does it matter?"

"It matters because I did not teach you the chidori to use against your comrades. You do realize what it's for, correct? To kill someone. It made sense to use against Gaara, because you could use it as a supplementary to break through his sand shield- and we both know how violent he was back then. That was dangerous. Sparring with Naruto is not."

Sasuke was paler than usual.

"Unless you mean to imply you meant to kill Naruto, in which case we'll be having a very different conversation."

Sasuke swallowed, but said nothing.

"The least you could have done was make sure he made it to the hospital. Instead, you left, while Sakura ran after him. His injury was very severe- he could have been put out of commission for a month."

"It won't happen again," Sasuke muttered.

"You're right, it won't. I'm banning you from using the chidori until you've proved you deserve to."

"What?" Sasuke wheeled around, incredulity making his expression twist in an ugly way. "You can't do that-"

"Yes, I can. If you don't shape up, Hokage-sama will have your chakra sealed," Kakashi said bluntly. Sasuke flinched back in shock. "Neither of us want that, even if it might teach you a lesson. Tomorrow we'll be doing D-ranks with Sakura, and I don't want to hear you complain as you usually do, got it?"

Sasuke gritted his teeth, repressed anger boiling in his stomach. "Fine," he bit out, turning to leave.

"And Sasuke," Kakashi said, making him pause. His shoulders were as tense as a board, fists clenched in his pockets. "You won't be going on missions with Naruto anymore. He filed a mission block against you. While this doesn't have any effect on how you two spend your free time, I expect you to leave him be when he returns."

A solid, tense twelve seconds passed. "Got it," Sasuke said, voice low, before storming off into the trees.

Kakashi stared after him, a heavy sigh wracking his body.


	11. Interlude

It was going to be a long month.

It had been one week, two days, and seven hours since Naruto had left. Kakashi had supplied his team (if it could even be called that anymore; Naruto’s absence made his chest ache at times in ways he thought he wasn’t able to feel anymore) with D-ranks and constant training exercises to fill the time. He figured some good old-fashioned exercise would be good for the both of them- physical activity might allow Sasuke to burn off some irritation (or maybe he’d just be too exhausted to have a bad attitude; Kakashi could hope) and it would only help Sakura. The girl needed to both build some muscle and iron out her view towards real, hard training.

He rarely made them wait hours for him to arrive anymore. It made Sasuke more agitated and forced Sakura to stand there with him in awkward silence. At most, he came half an hour late with a smile and a joke to try and fail to lighten the mood. When they were done training and performing missions, he gave them a pseudo-cheerful farewell, Sakura returned it, and they all went in separate directions to not speak to each other again until next training session. Sometimes Sakura laughed weakly and told him _Yeah, right, sensei,_ when he gave his excuses, but it just wasn’t the same.

No more Naruto to point and scream at him with Sakura about how he was late. No more Naruto loudly complaining about their D-ranks and wheedling him into taking a C-rank. No more Naruto to help Sakura drag the other two on their team to Ichiraku’s.

He’d focused on Sasuke because he’d reminded him of himself as a kid; he’d thought Sasuke needed the most help. Now he could rationalize it by saying _Naruto has Jiraiya_ \- but what about before? He’d shoved Naruto off on Ebisu- _Ebisu-_ and left Sakura in the dust. Had he avoided Naruto because he was afraid of failing his sensei’s son? Had he just wanted them to stay little inexperienced genin a little bit longer, away from a world that could make them turn out like Kakashi’s team had? His team had fallen apart and now his _new_ team had fallen apart as well. Kakashi had made it happen by trying to avoid it.

Someone stopped in front of him and sighed. “You’ve been reading that page for ten minutes, Kakashi.”

Hiding a wince, Kakashi looked up and plastered on a smile. “Have you been watching me for ten minutes, Iruka-sensei? I’m flattered.”

Iruka gave him a bland stare. He sat down on the bench beside him, setting a grocery bag on the ground by his feet. “You’re moping.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, sensei. I was quite enjoying this riveting tale of…well, you don’t want me to read it to you, do you?”

“Your porn? No,” Iruka said, chuckling wryly and in a way that made Kakashi blush beneath his mask in embarrassment at his choice in literature. “Quite unnecessary. Perhaps you’re down in the dumps over something the main _character_ is going through, hm?” He cocked one eyebrow, and in spite of the fact that he was both lower-ranked than Kakashi, weaker than him, younger than him _and_ shorter than him, Kakashi felt intimidated into answering somehow. It must have been because he was a teacher.

“Ah, well, the main character _is_ feeling a bit uncertain, you see,” Kakashi said, turning to stare elsewhere. “Another character left and he feels he might have failed them. Some of the others in the cast are still around, you know, but he can’t seem to connect with them.”

“I see. So does he seem determined to put in the effort he lacked before now?”

“Of course. Just a matter of being…too late. He’s uncertain as to whether it will be enough.”

Iruka hummed. “Well, sometimes people walk in different directions and you can’t stop it. It’s not always your fault. Perhaps this character needs to realize that.”

“Perhaps. Or maybe nothing bad would’ve happened if he’d done it right the first time,” Kakashi replied, feeling sour. Iruka arched an eyebrow at him that made him feel a little abashed.

A tiny smirk quirked the other man’s lips. “Is the character a fortune-teller?” he prodded, making Kakashi frown.

“No?”

“Ah, he must have psychic powers, then.”

“Where are you going with this, sensei?”

Iruka shrugged nonchalantly. He had quite a bit of experience dealing with sulking children. Kakashi may not have been a kid, but he was sulking. “Unless he’s a fortune teller or psychic or otherwise endowed with supernatural powers, I don’t understand how he could know it would have turned out differently for sure. For example, sometimes I try as hard as I can to get a student to apply himself, but he still fails the class exams. Was it my fault? What if I’d tried a different teaching method? Maybe if I’d done something different, he would have passed with flying colors, but I’ll never know. There’s no use torturing myself over it.”

Kakashi stared at the ground with a furrow in his brow. “I’m not sure what else to do.”

Iruka’s smile widened to something he used on students’ parents. It was frighteningly disconcerting. “I find the best method is to distract yourself. Maybe get a hobby. Take up knitting.”

An enthusiastic scream echoed in the distance. Kakashi’s head shot up. He blanched when the scream was followed by another yell. “Iruka, you didn’t.”

“Training works too,” Iruka continued, as if he hadn’t heard him, as he stood up and gathered his bag, looking through a stack of coupons that had appeared in his hand.

In a blinding flash of green, Gai appeared at the end of the street. He caught sight of them and beamed. “Kakashi!” he shouted. “Iruka has informed me that you’ll be joining me _every single morning!_ You have no idea how happy this makes me and Lee! Come and join me in a _youthful hug of friendship!_ ”

“Iruka, don’t leave me to this fate,” Kakashi begged, his visible eye wide and twitching.

Ignoring him, Iruka meandered down the road back towards the market district with his eyes on his coupons. “I’m sure you’ll be fine, Kakashi,” he called, sounding absentminded and uncaring.

Kakashi let out a yell behind him when Gai tackled him. Iruka glanced back and smiled.

* * *

 

“Are you _sure_ it goes that way?”

“Yes, I’m sure,” Kankuro insisted, resisting the urge to pull his hair out. One eyebrow twitched as he struggled to make the puzzle piece in his hand fit. “I’m telling you, it goes here.”

“I dunno,” Naruto replied skeptically. “I don’t think you’re supposed to have to force it in.”

“I’m a puppeteer. Tedious details and shit are my specialty. I think I know when a fucking puzzle piece-”

A strand of sand abruptly stole the piece out of his hand and twirled it around in a one-eighty, neatly fitting it into the space between two other pieces a few inches from Kankuro’s hand. His twitching got worse as Naruto cackled. “Show off!” he yelled into the kitchen, where Gaara just gave him a bland, dry stare as he took a drink of water.

The curtain in the doorway from the living area and attached kitchen to the stairs that led down into the lower levels where the living quarters were swished as Temari strode inside. “You will not _believe_ the time I had with my squad leader,” she began with a scowl, tossing her fan onto the table as she usually did when she came home. It landed with a loud _thunk_ on one end and made the whole thing jump, sending the puzzle flying. It hit the edge and broke apart on impact.

“ _Nooo!_ ” Kankuro shouted dramatically, throwing himself to the floor. She jumped and stared at them in startled confusion. “Temari that was a _thousand-piece puzzle!_ ” He moaned over the remains in agony while Naruto groaned into his hands. Even the strand of sand that had been helping (usually just correcting Kankuro’s attempts) wilted a little.

 _Oops_. “O…kay…” Temari stared at them mourning and slowly picked up her fan again. “I’ll leave you to fixing that.”

She backed out of the room warily and fled.

* * *

 

Sasuke was in a bad mood.

There was nothing except train to do nowadays. Except training always felt so very _weird_. Everything did now. It was like Naruto being promoted and leaving had disrupted the whole order of operations in their lives. Kakashi showed up to do a mission with them and for their team training sessions, then disappeared after and left them to their own devices. Sakura was useless to train with, even if she meant well when she offered.

What had Naruto even done to deserve a promotion that he hadn’t, anyway, he wondered as he looked for an empty training ground. He wasn’t stronger than Sasuke. Sasuke was probably better than him at strategy and critical thinking. What had he done that Sasuke hadn’t? Was it just that his match got interrupted and Naruto’s didn’t? What strategy could he use against Gaara’s _sand ball_? And _of course_ Naruto would rather be in Sunagakure, with strangers, than with his own team. ~~With him.~~

It seemed as if the universe was conspiring against him, today, because he kept running into people when all he wanted was to practice _alone_ and not have anyone bothering him. He’d stepped into a training ground he’d thought was empty and found Team Ten there- _not even training, just sitting around-_ and hadn’t even given them time to respond before he snapped out that he was going somewhere else. Lee had his mouth halfway-open, about to offer to train with him, and all Tenten did was raise an eyebrow at him ( _ ~~judgmentally~~_ ) while Neji watched him with an unnerving stare.

“Sasuke!”

A full-body cringe shuddered through him that he hid as he turned around. The irritation was plain on his face, yet Ino leapt at him and wrapped her arms around his neck anyway. He felt a twitch forming as she started to speak.

“I haven’t seen you in a while,” she gushed, thankfully letting him go and giving him some small amount of personal space back. She gave him a beaming smile. “How are you?”

“Whatever,” he replied out of habit. The smile faltered for a split second. He noticed Shikamaru and Choji behind her; Choji looked the same as always- shoveling down chips like a pig, watching them with an open expression. Shikamaru looked the same on the surface. Hands in his pockets, slouching, eyes half-lidded. But this time, he just didn’t look lazy. They were narrow on purpose. Staring. Glaring. ( _ ~~Judging.~~_ ) He was a chuunin too. He was weak, but he’d somehow beat Sasuke every time during that damned exercise. What could he do other than play with shadows? Yet his stare was unnerving, just like Neji’s, they made him feel like they were seeing through him.

He ripped his stare away, realizing he was glaring, and cast the glare on Ino instead. “What do you want?” he bit out, wanting nothing more than to go home where nobody would bother him. _Home that wasn’t home. What was he even doing while his family rotted in the ground? Nothing was changing. Nothing was getting better._

Ino paused for a moment before speaking. “Well, I thought we could do something together,” she said with what she thought was a convincing smile, clasping her hands behind her back. Lights from signs and restaurants around them cast the street in an off-putting haze of artificial light. “Like-”

“No thanks,” he interrupted shortly, turning and walking away from her. “I’m busy.”

“O-oh. W-well, if you change your mind-!”

“Just leave him, Ino,” Shikamaru told her, that grating voice of his dropping to a drawl that felt mocking. “Let him go sulk by himself.”

The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. Sasuke gritted his teeth and left.

* * *

 

Sakura was miserable.

She was exhausted all the time from her training with her team- or what was left of it- and every day she missed Naruto more. She wished everything could go back to the way it had been. That Sasuke would go back to the way he had been. Even the way he’d constantly rebuffed her attempts to ask him out. At least that was familiar. He hardly looked at or spoke to her now unless it was for a mission, and he declined every offer she made to spend time together lately.

Spending time with the other teams just made her miss her own. The only one she even knew very well was Team Asuma- she had barely spoken to anyone on Gai’s and though Team Kurenai were all from her class, they still didn’t feel like friends. Things with Ino had just been…weird, since Naruto and Sasuke had started to devolve.

So she was left with no one, outside of her parents, who just didn’t understand, well, really…anything.

She wondered if this was going to be her life from now on. Maybe she’d be put on some team with two people she didn’t know for chuunin exams. Maybe she’d scrape by and become a weak, helpless chuunin instead of a weak, helpless genin. She probably wouldn’t go beyond that and would spend her days running errands on easy missions, occasionally pulling guard duty, and maybe helping out on a B-rank, for something exciting. Then she’d come home, if not to her parents then to an empty apartment. Wake up, work, watch bad drama on television while she downed tubs of ice cream. Sounded like a nice life.

She sniffled and wiped the tears from her face as she stared down at the framed team photo she had on her bed. She looked so happy in it, while Naruto and Sasuke glared at each other. But she knew they’d been friends once, even if neither would admit it. _Where had things gone wrong?_

She just wanted things to go back to the way they were.

She just wanted her life back.

She wanted her friends.

This was no life at all.

And she didn’t know how to fix any of it.

* * *

 

“Are you all right, Uchiha-san?”

Sasuke repressed a growl as he looked up at the Aburame heir standing over him. He sat beneath a tree hiding from the sweltering sun, glaring into space- or at least he had been before Shino interrupted his thoughts. “Why the fuck do you want to know?”

“I do, indeed, care about my comrades,” Shino replied, something in his reply short even if the words were polite and the tone wasn’t altogether rude. As if it was obvious and Sasuke was stupid for not getting it. He withdrew one hand from his pockets to push his glasses up his nose. The sunlight reflected off them in just the right way to be annoying. “So I will repeat my earlier question: are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” Sasuke replied sourly. He knew that Shino- who he barely knew- had they even ever spoken?- was just hiding some ulterior motive. No one _cared_. If they did, they would be helping him get justice for his family. “So just shove off.”

Shino didn’t say anything for what felt like too long. Sasuke couldn’t see his eyes, but he knew that behind those sunglasses, he would have the same look as Neji and Shikamaru ( _how had they both beaten him?_ ). Evaluating him like he was some ticking time bomb ready to go off. Silently telling him to stay away.

Finally, Shino turned away from him. “You should ask for help if you need it,” he told Sasuke over his shoulder, and started walking away.

Sasuke fisted his hands in the grass and glared a hole in the Aburame’s back.

He didn’t need help.

* * *

 

“A-are you…sure about this, Iruka-sensei?” Kakashi asked, oddly pale as his visible eye drooped. He’d only started calling Iruka sensei as a joke, a way to poke at him, but it was a habit now.

“Of course,” Iruka replied with a grin weirdly reminiscent of Naruto’s. Kakashi abruptly remembered that he’d been a prankster in his youth and felt fear settle over him.

“Socializing isn’t really my…forte…”

Oh, sure, he could go out for a little sake with a few other jounin. He could schmooze his way through a party if he was undercover and fake a smile until he had a kunai in his target’s jugular. He wasn’t completely inept. But what Iruka was suggesting? Actually having to genuinely…

“You’ll be fine,” Iruka chirped, slapping him on the shoulder. He winced.

Iruka turned on his heel and strode towards the door. The building they stood outside of was mid-sized, plain-looking, altogether unthreatening, but the bright neon sign overhead that flashed _The Happy Flapper Dance Club_ made him feel like someone was going to jump him and steal his kidneys.

He adjusted the collar of his suit and loosened the tie around his neck with a swallow. Maybe if he just mimicked whatever Iruka did he wouldn’t embarrass himself.

(As it turned out, ‘what Iruka did’ was some fast-stepping jig done hand-in-hand with a man who seemed to know him, and Kakashi scared several guests half to death when they saw his Sharingan out as he tried to figure out what to do.)

* * *

 

Most travelers and especially those who’d never been thought Sunagakure was some drab, boring place where everything looked the same and one would go stir-crazy from countless streets that looked identical. In reality, it had just as much personality as any other village.

Sure, to some extent it looked a little maze-like sometimes. But Naruto found that it was easy to learn the geography once he got acclimated. No two streets looked _exactly_ the same. There were six main roads that ran out towards the walls from the Kazekage tower, each surrounded by a bustling thoroughfare, and some of his favorite spots were nestled in the roads that branched off from them and the back alleys. Often he found buildings covered in graffiti that proudly showed the effort that had been put into it; due to the rare chances for rain, people worked together to string decorations up between buildings beneath the netting and tarps that kept them cool.

Though he’d been staying at the Sand Siblings’ residence, he still checked back in at his hotel room- that Konoha was paying for- to make it didn’t look like he was wasting village resources. The hotel was only three stories and small-looking to the naked eye, but had three levels underground.

The street it was on was shady, even downright dark in places, during the day, due to how close the lines of buildings were set. A little tea shop sat across from it where he sometimes went to sit on the patio and watch as barefoot children ran about in the road. Down to the end of the road, after a left turn, all the way down that road to the intersection that connected to a larger street, a vendor set up every day that sold various trinkets. He wasn’t exactly known for his _serious_ gifts, so, since Temari’s birthday was coming up, he’d bought a tiny charm that was meant to hang off the handle of her fan without interfering in battle. It was shaped into the form of a bright green frog with puckered red lips.

There was a walkway above the buildings made of something that looked like scaffolding, though it was sturdier, that people with business used to get places quicker. Naruto could always tell when a tourist had gone where they weren’t mean to because they walked cautiously slow, both hands on the railings, and looked down with bug eyes.

He rolled his eyes at a woman doing just that and sat back in his chair. One of the tea shop employees stepped outside to refill his cup and he grinned at her in thanks. He liked this place- almost as much as Ichiraku’s, though no one could actually compete with Ichiraku’s. He couldn’t remember ever finding anywhere else in Konoha he felt that way.

He couldn’t remember feeling like this in Konoha at all.

In Suna, he could stroll around the streets for hours and not be subject to glares, judgmental stares, and people avoiding him. Sure, things had gotten better after he helped bring back Tsunade, but it was still there. In Suna, he could just…walk. For however long he wanted. No one would look at him weird- maybe a few would even give him a smile.

Honestly, he wished he could stay in Suna forever.

The kids at the Academy already knew his name. The first time he’d gone to Gaara’s house late, he’d walked in and said _I’m home_ on impulse, and three voices had greeted him- _welcomed_ him. There was even Ichiraku’s. He’d made acquaintances that _liked_ him and greeted him with a smile when he came into their shops.

He could have a _life_ in Suna.

It was too bad good things never lasted forever.

* * *

 

“Iruka-sensei…do you think I’m pathetic? You can be honest.”

Iruka sighed and tried not to roll his eyes. Ever since he’d left Kakashi on that bench the man’s mood had seemed to take an uptake, even if he did still send Iruka glares when they saw each other for corralling him into training with Gai. But Iruka knew how much Naruto had liked the man, and knew Naruto would want someone there to kick some sense into Kakashi if he fell into a funk- so when he’d started to notice just how long Kakashi spent wandering around sulking, he’d decided to take action.

“Why would I think you’re pathetic, Kakashi-sensei?” he asked, purposefully goading him.

Kakashi glared at his back. “Because you keep dragging me places,” he mumbled under his breath, more to himself than Iruka. The teacher looked over his shoulder to give him a smile. “I mean, because you’re so…nice…and take me out to…do things.”

“Everyone’s a little pathetic,” Iruka said, just to see Kakashi’s eyebrow jerk. “I promise the only moment I thought you were pathetic was when you wrecked last night during roller-blading.”

He saw red creep up Kakashi’s ears. For an elite shinobi, he’d been awfully unbalanced on the skates they’d rented.

Nothing seemed to really work so far, however. If anything, Kakashi just suffered through all their activities and looked as if he went home and cried into his pillow, whether about the state of his team or about the activities Iruka didn’t know.

“Tell you what,” Iruka said, smiling consolingly as he opened the door to their next destination. “I’m sure you’ll like this one.”

Ten minutes later, he started to regret his decision when a wan-faced Kakashi jerkily handed him a prop and went back to sitting there as still as a statue on stage while a group of people stared at them and a spotlight highlighted their presence. If only he’d known that a live-reading of Icha Icha had been incorporated into improv night.

* * *

 

“C-come on, Sasuke,” Sakura pleaded, voice quiet and holding barely any of her old enthusiasm. “It’s just one night! We can all spend some time together, maybe, I don’t know…”

The boy in front of her let out a ragged, irritated sigh. Sakura felt like she was trying to move a brick wall.

“I don’t see why you dragged me here,” he bit out at last, his tone betraying how annoying he thought she was. She could practically feel it radiating off him. She flinched. “I don’t see any point in spending any time with any of them.”

“They’re our friends,” Sakura argued. She hoped none of the pedestrians milling about in the road overheard them. The restaurant was _right there-_ if she could just get him inside, she told herself, maybe everything would just iron itself out and everyone would relax a little and get along.

Something in Sasuke’s jaw twitched. “I don’t have friends,” he said, face set in a frown.

Okay, that hurt. Sakura bit her lip. “Maybe-”

“Sakura, are you ever going to accept that maybe I just don’t want to hang around with you?” he snapped, scowling. “When I say no, I mean no.”

“But-”

“And I _don’t_ want to spend time with them,” Sasuke continued. He felt like he was at the end of his rope. Why couldn’t Sakura ever just take no for an answer? He didn’t want to go out and pretend to have fun and pretend everything was all right. It wasn’t. “Take a hint for once and leave me the fuck alone,” he said, louder than he’d intended to, and turned on his heel to storm off.

Sakura pressed her lips together but said nothing. She felt herself droop a little. She’d done nothing but go train with Sasuke and Kakashi in near silence and come home for days- she’d just wanted _one night_ where everything could feel a little more normal. She knew Ino had only sent her the invitation to the night out the teams were having out of obligation, and hadn’t wanted to go alone, but still.

Speak of the devil, Ino herself walked up beside her, staring after Sasuke in confusion. “What the hell? What’d you say to him?” she asked. It was more out of curiosity than of malice, but it still came out accusative.

Something in Sakura broke down. She looked at her friend- or someone who used to be friend, at least- and a sob escaped her lips. Before she could stop herself she was bawling.

_~~Stupid, useless, all I do is cry-~~ _

“S-Sakura?” Ino squeaked, startled into being scared.

Sakura ran away from her back towards her house. She knew she never should have left. She shouldn’t have _tried_.

Ino stared after her with her mouth hanging open and turned to find Shikamaru and Choji behind her. A few others from the Konoha 12 had poked their heads out the restaurant doors too. “Really, Ino?” Shikamaru asked with a grimace, rubbing a hand over his eyes. Guilt formed in Ino’s gut.

“I-I didn’t…mean to…” To what, Ino didn’t even know.

“Troublesome,” the chuunin muttered, but it just didn’t have any weight in it. He just sounded tired.

Choji was still staring after where Sakura had gone with a worried look on his face. “Is she…gonna be all right?”

“I don’t know,” Shikamaru replied in a mutter. “I don’t know if any of them are.”

Ino wished she didn’t know who he meant.

And Sasuke, well, Sasuke spent the night pummeling trees until his hands bled, frustrated at everything he was feeling and the general state of his life- or lack thereof. This was no life. Not to him.


	12. Step Three: The Clincher

The first time his charges had told him their plan, the first thought that came to Baki’s mind was _Holy shit, they are going to start an actual war_.

He’d actually tried to dissuade them from it, but even Temari- who was by rights the most level-headed in his experience (although with Gaara’s shock of sanity lately, that title may soon fall to him)- was dead set on carrying it out. At first he’d been skeptical- of the possibility of the plan even working, for the safety of Suna, maybe a little bit about their sanity.

But it soon became apparent to him that he wasn’t going to be able to convince them otherwise.

If they were going to make this attempt, he rationalized, he might as well make sure it went down with the smallest amount of culpability on Suna’s hands. Assuming they could pull it off, it wasn’t as if Uzumaki wouldn’t prove to be a great asset. Sunagakure was a large village, but they weren’t as powerful as Konoha or Kumo; another Jinchuriki would tip the scales in their favor.

As long as it looked as if that Jinchuriki hadn’t been stolen or lured there and had come there through his own legal means.

He’d served on the advisory council for years. He had more experience dealing with red tape and legalities than the Sand Siblings combined. So, in the end, he did help them, even if he made them all swear to secrecy.

He glanced down at the letter he’d received and nodded to himself. He’d had to rework his students’ plan a little, but he was confident that at least now they had a shot at succeeding.

And if they failed, well, at least it wouldn’t reflect badly on the village.

* * *

 

Naruto was starting to feel guilty. He’d grown up in Konoha and some part of him would always love it, but the part of him that loved Suna was warring with it. Some part of him also wanted to go back at the end of the month, but part of him wanted to stay. He’d been ignoring the date on the calendar and distracting himself with teaching his students and running about Suna sightseeing. Sometimes Temari would take him out on the sands and teach him about wind chakra. He’d even come home- well, back to the Kazekage clan residence- one night and found a fan just like hers, with blood red moons where hers were purple, sitting against the wall and waiting for the day he’d be ready to use it.

Other times he went out to spar or just sit around with Gaara, especially when he could see the other Jinchuriki needed a break from stress. Kankuro joined them for sand surfing one time, unaware of what he was getting himself into, and spent the entire time shrieking for Gaara to go slower. Naruto wondered if Gaara didn’t have an ornery side after all, because it had seemed they picked up speed after that.

Even Kankuro was still painstakingly teaching him about some of the simpler functions of his puppets. It was interesting, once Naruto got past the tediousness of it and Kankuro showed him some of the “cooler” functions. Kankuro doubted he’d have the chakra control to ever actually _control_ a puppet, but he insisted it was important to be knowledgeable about them in case he ever fought one.

And it wasn’t just that they were all willing to teach him or tell him about Suna- they all seemed as if they actually wanted to know about Naruto himself. That had never happened before with a friend. Gaara was willing to listen to pretty much anything he said, and Kankuro had found he was very good at setting traps and had learned something from _him_. He and Temari had even gotten into cooking- a brand new hobby- together because frankly, the meals at the Kazekage household were often a little bit pathetic.

They’d even decorated a room that actually looked like it belonged to him. The bedspread was orange, there were some cacti lining the shelves, and a welcome mat in the shape of a frog sat in the doorway.

He really didn’t want to leave, he admitted to himself.

“What if you didn’t have to?”

Naruto startled with a shriek, flying off his desk chair and throwing the closest object- which was a pencil he hadn’t sharpened yet- at the intruder, who was just Temari standing on the frog mat. The pencil bounced off her shoulder and she gave him a dull stare.

“You startled me,” he defended himself, pouting.

Temari rolled her eyes. “I came to talk to you,” she said, shutting his door. The living quarters were really the only rooms that had doors instead of curtains- something about keeping the place cool. “You don’t want to leave Suna, right?”

“I mean…” Naruto looked away and spun his desk chair around distractedly. “I guess not, no.”

“Well, like I said. What if you could live here full time?”

Naruto glanced up at her with wide eyes. She leaned against the door with folded hands. “Did baa-chan give me a new mission or something long-term?” he asked, confused.

A tiny smirk lifted one corner of her mouth. “No, the Hokage hasn’t contacted me,” she explained, making him more confused. “I’m saying, if you could just switch villages, would you?”

He stared at her. Shrugging, he turned his gaze back to the chair. “No use wondering if it’s impossible, right?”

“What if I told you it was possible?”

He stopped the chair’s spinning with his index finger. “What are…what’re you saying?” he asked, even though he knew, in the back of his head, what she was implying.

_But he couldn’t actually leave Konoha…could he?_

“I’m saying we found out a way to make you a _Sunagakure_ citizen and shinobi,” Temari told him, watching him go as still as a statue. “I’ll admit it’s not a perfect plan, and considering your status there are some roadblocks we could hit, but if things go as smoothly as we hope, we could, theoretically, get you out of Konoha- legally- and instated as a shinobi here.”

Naruto stared at her.

“I can’t just…leave,” he mumbled, but now that he thought about it, why couldn’t he? Shinobi resigned. Villagers moved away. Sometimes former shinobi did too. Why should he _have_ to stay there just because he was their precious weapon?

That was the only reason they’d want him to stay. So they wouldn’t lose a tool.

_But…baa-chan…and the others…_

But Tsunade wouldn’t really be that affected, would she? Sure, she wouldn’t see him every day anymore, but surely she’d want him to be happy. The Konoha 12…well, Naruto couldn’t really say he was very close with many of them. And Jiraiya could just as easily visit him in Suna as he could in Konoha. He knew Iruka-sensei would be sad to see him go, but-

There wasn’t really much of anything in Konoha for him. He couldn’t teach, he had no friends- what was to say he could even take a genin team, eventually, if they or their parents threw a fit? Was becoming Hokage really _possible_?

But in Suna, he could teach for as long as he wanted, make actual friends- he had a family there.

“I don’t know…”

“Look, I’m not going to try to pressure you to stay if you don’t want to,” Temari said, “but you never seemed happy in Konoha. And all of us- Gaara and Kankuro and I- we enjoy having you here. Doesn’t having a _life_ here in Suna sound better than going back?”

She tried to get a read of him through his expression, but it was oddly blank. He looked down at the desk.

He thought of the children at Suna’s Academy, some of whom had even cried when he told them he would have to leave soon, of the old woman who ran the teahouse he liked, of the chuunin he’d started to make friends with on his missions, and of the way he’d felt when he came home and saw the fan Temari had gotten him, like she was his little brother too.

She was starting to worry when he looked up. “I…yeah, okay. I wanna be here.”

He hoped it was the right decision.

Temari grinned.

* * *

 

Iruka was staring at the Hokage Monument again. Sometimes he did that- zoned out during whatever they were doing. Eyeing the distracted look in the man’s eyes, Kakashi cleared his throat, trying not to startle him.

Iruka jumped and looked over at him. “What- oh, sorry,” he apologized, sounding sheepish. He went back to stirring the eggs in the pan on his stove. His window gave him a nice view of the monument; he’d almost burned the eggs. “I got distracted.”

“What’s on your mind, sensei?” Kakashi hummed, pretending to read his book. In truth, he couldn’t read anything right now if he wanted to. His head was pounding like it had the first time he’d gotten drunk and not known how to avoid a hangover. He felt groggy, too, like a teenager who’d gone overboard.

Okay, maybe he _had_ gone overboard a little, especially when the waitress at whatever bar they’d ended up at after a _horrific_ evening of bowling that had ended up with someone needing to go to the ER for a concussion (that they both wanted to forget) had brought over something with a very high number on the proof part of the label. Kakashi couldn’t even remember what it was.

Thankfully, Iruka was a saint or perhaps a god in human form and had dragged him back to his apartment.

That is, Iruka’s apartment. Kakashi had never been inside it before, but it was very nice- and larger than his. It even had a spare bedroom. Unfortunately, the curtains were all sheer and did nothing to shield him from the sunlight.

“Nothing, nothing important,” Iruka said, fumbling over his words. He took the pan and scraped the eggs onto two plates just as the toast popped up from the toaster. Kakashi would have gotten up to at least get his own plate, but his feet felt like jelly and he worried he’d vomit all over Iruka’s clean carpet.

Iruka sat down at the table and pushed Kakashi’s plate towards him. He muttered a thank you for the food and eyed the chuunin suspiciously, wondering if he was going to try and take a peek behind his mask.

Before he could really get too concerned about it, a small stack of letters was shoved through the opening on Iruka’s door. “That should be my bills,” he muttered, getting up and hurrying over to them. He looked through them, keeping Kakashi from seeing them, and he resisted the urge to snoop- there was no reason to intrude on Iruka’s privacy, especially considering how hospitable he was being. However, he couldn’t help himself from watching the small frown on Iruka’s face and the way his eyes ran over one of the letters and wondering what was up.

The odd mood in the air disappeared as quickly as it’d come when Iruka shuffled the letters together and put them in the drawer of his end table by the door.

“Nothing important,” he said again, giving Kakashi a smile and sitting back down. He paused when he saw Kakashi’s plate was empty. He frowned. “Kakashi, you know eating that fast is bad for digestion.”

Kakashi smiled unconvincingly at him. “I was really hungry?”

Iruka just gave him an unimpressed stare.

* * *

 

Sakura didn’t know why she was out this late. She felt like she was caught in limbo- she didn’t know where her life was supposed to go, or who she was supposed to share it with, or what she was supposed to feel. She felt as if she were in a perpetual raincloud, unable to find anything to lift her mood even for a few minutes.

She was wandering around the streets when she saw a familiar shape making its way down the road. The road that led out of the village.

“Sasuke?” she called out, making the figure pause. She could see clearer as she came closer. He had a pack on, but she knew they didn’t have any missions. “What’re you doing?”

He turned around, frowning, and she stopped a few feet away from him. “It’s none of your business, Sakura.”

She felt her heart break just a little. “Are…are you leaving?” she asked morosely, already knowing the answer. “But Sasuke, you can’t!”

He scowled. “Why not? What’s in the village for me? There’s nothing for me here. I need to get stronger, and I’m not going to accomplish that here.”

“B-but…what about…everyone?”

“Why would I care about any of them?” Sasuke snapped at her, scowl deepening.

“Please don’t leave, Sasuke.” She could feel tears dripping down her cheeks now, and would have cursed it if she wasn’t so focused. “A-aren’t we friends? I promise I won’t bother you, I won’t try to make you spend time with anyone anymore, I won’t even come around!”

If Sasuke left, that meant there was truly no going back. No way to fix Team Seven. No way to make them all friends again. No way to make everything go back to normal.

“Tch.” He glared at her; the irritation in his eyes made her feel like he really did hate her. “You’re so annoying.”

There was a blur of motion. Sakura tried to scream, but found everything going dark before she could get a syllable out.

* * *

 

Naruto was starting to get antsy as he walked through the gates of the village. He was almost considering chickening out, and he might have if someone he recognized stopped to talk to him.

Instead, there seemed to be a flurry of activity around him and his arrival was mostly unnoticed. It must have been a busy day, he supposed.

He walked into the shinobi registration office with a lump in his throat. Just like Temari had said there would be- though he didn’t know how she knew- the chuunin at the desk were two who had been promoted the previous year. They were young enough to not know he was a Jinchuriki.

“Hey,” he greeted, shuffling the papers in his hand. “I need to resign.”

One of the two- a girl with green hair and red circles on her cheeks- turned to give him a mildly confused look. A shinobi resigning wasn’t per se rare, but wasn’t extremely common, either.

She didn’t recognize him.

“Okay, you’re going to need some paperwork-”

“I already have it,” he said, handing the other one his forms. His heart was pounding in his chest. The other chuunin looked them over, green eyes skimming until the important parts. He looked up at Naruto and squinted.

“All right, and you’re absolutely sure about this? If you want to come back, you start over from the bottom, genin up.”

“I’m sure,” Naruto told him.

The teenager nodded. He set the papers down and took out several stamps and a small bottle of ink and a brush. He handed Naruto’s forms to the girl to look over a second time.

She took one of the stamps and left an impression on each of them before getting up and trotting over to the copier near the back of the room. Naruto swallowed thickly and glanced back at the door, as if Tsunade herself was about to come barging through asking what the hell he was doing.

“Okay,” the male muttered, tongue peeking out of his mouth as he filled out yet another form. “This won’t be _official_ until it goes through the office upstairs, but we’ve got pretty much no traffic considering this morning’s events so that’ll only take about twenty minutes.” The girl came back over and handed him a copy of his forms, stapled together. He slid a paper towards him with a pen. “This is a non-disclosure agreement. Aka, if you ever divulge any secrets, you’ll be legally liable for that as if you were still a shinobi whether or not you’re a civilian.”

Assuming he was still a Konohagakure citizen.

“Got it,” Naruto said, keeping his voice level and signing his name at the bottom.

“I also have to give you one of these,” the chuunin went on, uncapping the ink. “It doesn’t do anything but keep you from talking about Konohagakure to anyone but our shinobi- well, talking about anything a normal old civilian would know. You can still recommend restaurants to tourists. I know, the form seems unnecessary, but rarely, people do get around this.”

Naruto let him draw and activate a seal on his wrist. “Is that it?” he asked, staring at it.

“Well, I’m gonna need your headband.”

Naruto paused. _Right_. Grimacing, he reached up and untied his headband- the same one he’d let Zabuza beat him for- the same one he’d worked so hard to achieve.

He set it down and slid it across the table towards them.

“Hope you find something better for you, man,” the male said, sounding sympathetic.

Naruto nodded stiffly, turned on his heel, and walked out.

* * *

 

Izumo was putting forms through the scanner and filing them away when one caught his eye. Resignation forms weren’t particularly interesting to him, but the _Uzumaki_ caught his eye from the preview window on the office printer.

“What the hell?” he muttered, taking the form back out and staring at it. “Naruto resigned?”

He looked up and around with a frown, but the other chuunin there had stepped out for coffee. Should he tell the Hokage? Surely she’d want to know.

He set the form down and headed for the door, the rest of the stack still in his hands. He was sure she didn’t know, otherwise there’d probably be yelling going on.

As soon as he stepped into the hall, he ran smack dab into someone coming the other way. “Oh shit,” he yelped, stumbling as their coffee spilled down his front- and all over his stack of papers, which had gone flying to the floor.

“Oh my god, I am _so_ sorry,” the girl in front of him exclaimed. She looked to be around fifteen or sixteen and wore a Suna headband. There was a Styrofoam cup in her hand, and she was looking at his papers with guilt written across her face. “I didn’t see you.”

“No, no, totally my fault,” Izumo stammered, dropping to his knees and hurrying to save as many forms as he could. _No one_ would be happy having to redo them. “Sorry.”

“I’ll get you some paper towels from the restroom,” the girl continued, still sounding apologetic, and hurried off down the hall.

* * *

 

Updating his passport took less time than expected. The office was run by civilians, and the woman who gave him a new one gave him a squint-eyed look, but not any trouble. She was probably happy he’d finally given up on being a ninja and their Hokage. Either way, he left with a passport that marked him as a civilian, not a shinobi. He was making an effort to go unnoticed as he walked around, now, but there still seemed to be some sort of ruckus going on- a few chuunin running about, what shinobi he did see looking distracted. Perhaps that was why the plan was working.

Miraculously, things were all going smoothly so far. He didn’t bother swinging by his apartment to pick anything up, as he’d given them notice he wasn’t going to be living there three days earlier and he was sure they’d probably tossed his things. Fortunately nothing of great import was there. For once he was glad he had never handled any sort of high-security sensitive information on missions, even if he’d technically gone on an A-rank (or been captured by enemy shinobi, or been a chuunin longer than three months, or gone on any S-ranks), or else, he gathered, resigning would take longer.

Which left only two tasks.

He walked towards the gates while his stomach did somersaults and his palms sweated. Sure enough, the chuunin on guard wasn’t someone from the older generation- another teenage chuunin who didn’t know there was a reason she needed to detain him.

“Where you plan on moving?” she asked him cheerfully as she stamped his passport, as she would any other civilian who planned on moving out of the village, and looked over the papers he’d brought that proved he’d moved out and stamped his birth certificate to note he was no longer a citizen.

“I’m thinking somewhere in Wind Country,” Naruto replied, not wanting to make her suspicious. “I like hot weather.”

“You should stop by the Land of Rivers on your way,” she told him with a toothy smile. “I’ve heard they have really great freshwater hot springs.”

He grinned back at her. “Thanks. I’ll do that.”

She waved amicably at him as he stepped out of the village.

He’d just disappeared from sight when Kotetsu, who was watching the gates after her, came up to the desk. “Anything exciting happen?” he asked, then grimaced. “Other than the retrieval squad leaving.”

The girl opened her mouth to respond when a frisbee came flying out of nowhere and smacked him in the bridge of his nose, sending him flying back.

“Shit, sorry about that!” a Suna nin called as he came jogging over, looking apologetic. Konohamaru and his gang trotted along behind him. “I was playin’ with the kids. Little rascals.”

Kotetsu groaned and placed a hand over his nose. “Konohamaru, what have I told you about playing out in the open,” he moaned.

The boy blushed and muttered a sheepish apology.

“Lemme take ya to the hospital, man,” Kankuro continued, helping the chuunin up. “Not gonna look good for village relations if I break your nose and leave you on the ground, is it?” he joked.

“Probably not,” Kotetsu snorted. “Mimi, can you take another shift for me?”

“Sure thing,” the girl replied with a sheepish smile. “Hope your nose feels better!”

* * *

 

The Land of Fire didn’t keep track of its citizens like villages did- there were simply too many villages and towns scattered about to do it effectively. However, there were census and passport offices that answered to the Daimyo scattered about the country that could help add to how “legit” someone looking to emigrate appeared.

Fortunately for him, there was one such office about an hour’s walk from Konoha- which translated into roughly half an hour for a shinobi like him, seeing as that as soon as he was a good distance from Konoha he burst into a hard sprint and ran like hell. This part of the plan was the most dangerous, because he knew the siblings couldn’t help him if they wanted to have an alibi.

After he stopped in a town that reminded him of Tanzaku Town and found the office he was searching for- and got multiple papers stamped and declined to take a survey on why he was leaving the Land of Fire- he booked it for the border and the office for the Land of Wind on the way to Suna where Baki was waiting for him.

He would feel safer once he was in the desert.

* * *

 

“Looks like we got our alibi,” Kankuro said, eyes roving over a scroll a messenger bird had just dropped off. Temari took a sip of her tea and raised an eyebrow at him. The trio sat at a very public teahouse, waiting until they could return to Suna and hopefully find Naruto waiting for them.

“What is it?” Gaara asked, not moving his stare from the street. He’d been lurking in the woods outside the village, making sure no one followed Naruto, but as the day stretched into the afternoon even he was tense.

“You know that old teammate of Naruto’s, Sasuke something? It seems he ran off last night. In the very much non-legal _deserting_ sort of way. That’s what all this hullabaloo is about this morning.”

“I guess that’s a blessing in and of itself. It provided a good distraction,” Temari said, leaning back and stretching. “What do they want us to do, go catch him for them?” She snorted derisively.

“Not exactly. Seems they sent a retrieval squad as soon as they found out, but they need backup. Guess it’s better than sitting around here making ourselves nervous.”

“Guess we better get moving, then.”


	13. Epilogue

Due to most of the retrieval squad- which, due to changed fate, included Ino, who watched Sasuke look her in the eyes as he emerged from the coffin, an evil pattern crawling across his skin, and leave an injured Lee and herself alone with Kimimaro- coming back and heading straight to the ICU, the quiet departure of Naruto went unnoticed for a little bit longer.

Until Sakura noticed.

She hadn’t gone on the mission because she’d been hysterical when Izumo and Kotetsu found her passed out on the ground, so much that Izumo had delivered her message to Tsunade while Kotetsu took her to her house to try and get her to calm down. In a shock, she’d sunk onto her living room couch and passed out again, then slept fitfully through the afternoon until she awoke and rushed to the Hokage Tower.

Now, she sat outside the rooms occupied by the squad. Shikamaru was a few seats over from her, while the kunoichi from the sand sat across from him. She was calm, strong, confident- cool. She was everything Sakura wasn’t.

She’d been stewing in her own self-pity until it hit her like a sack of bricks: she’d been waiting for this day for a month, because it was when Naruto was coming back.

So she’d asked.

“Where’s Naruto?”

The kunoichi raised an eyebrow at her. Shikamaru glanced up with a frown, but wasn’t distracted. “Probably headed back to his apartment,” he murmured, then he flinched and bowed his head again. Probably thinking of the talk he’d have to have with the blond later.

But Sakura wasn’t satisfied. She got up and left, first going to Naruto’s apartment- which she found occupied by someone else- and then back to the Hokage Tower. Tsunade was busy with Choji, so she flitted about asking after her former teammate until she ran into Izumo by chance.

“Naruto? He resigned. I was on my way to tell Hokage-sama when the retrieval squad started coming back.”

And Sakura felt her world turn upside down.

* * *

 

When Tsunade emerged from the hospital at long last, a chuunin was trotting alongside her to keep up with her long stride, relaying the fact that Naruto had resigned and was nowhere to be seen. The way she barked out orders and sent people off to look for him brought Sakura some comfort.

Nothing turned up until the gate guard brought in her records for the day. They were immediately gone through, in case Naruto was seen leaving, and when Kakashi came up to Sakura with such a tired look in his eye he looked half dead, she knew that Sasuke leaving hadn’t been the point of no return. This was.

* * *

 

Men and women weren’t supposed to be put into the same rooms, but the nurses had taken pity on them and rolled Choji in to lay beside Ino. She barely acknowledged it, instead choosing to stare at the ceiling with no reaction.

She was bandaged pretty much everywhere due to the cuts and stab wounds Kimimaro had given her. The retrieval squad had gone down one by one, and she’d been fighting Kimimaro with Hinata when Lee showed up. It had been either that or fight Tayuya, and in the end Shikamaru had made the decision to stay behind.

Now Ino wished they’d never gone at all.

Lee was in better shape than her- because he was strong, and actually took his training seriously. Ino had never felt more useless than when he spent half the fight trying to protect her and only ended up being injured further. Especially with his legs…

Even Hinata had done better. She came out of it just as injured as Ino, but she’d faced down Kimimaro with a determined expression and not a single tremor in her hands. That was more than Ino could say for herself.

And then the coffin had opened, and she’d felt hope- because even if he’d been sour and grumpy lately, surely Sasuke wouldn’t just let them die.

She’d been wrong.

The look he’d given her had chilled her to the bone. All of her affection for him had shriveled up and died with barely a whimper. She still thought back to it and shuddered.

She never thought sand could be comforting until that redheaded friend of Naruto’s had shown up and kept them from being hurt any further while he dealt with Kimimaro.

The mission had ended there. Gaara had exhausted himself and none of them could go any further.

And now Naruto was gone too.

“Are you okay, Ino?”

Ino didn’t want to look at Choji and see his thin, recovering body, but she made herself do it anyway. How many times had she made jokes about how he needed to lose weight?

“I dunno,” she replied, and then tears filled her eyes. Choji stared at her with a sympathetic look on his face.

Shikamaru spoke up for the first time since he’d slunk inside, head bowed, and set a stool down between their beds to sit on. “I’m sorry, guys,” he whispered.

Ino sniffled, a few tears leaking out, but she wasn’t going to bawl here. “It’s not your fault. You’re not the one who left us to die.”

Shikamaru looked up. He was grinding his jaw, and she could tell he was thinking the same thing as her. If they hadn’t gone after Sasuke, who didn’t even seem to care whether they lived or died, maybe they would have been there to greet Naruto. Maybe they could have convinced him to stay. Maybe they could have at least salvaged that friendship.

“I promise,” he said, trying to stop his voice from wavering and failing, “I promise I’m never gonna let anything like this happen again.”

Ino reached over out of instinct. He clasped her hand in his and she was startled to find it shaking. They sat in silence, and her one comfort was that she believed him.

* * *

 

What had he missed?

Shino wondered if there was anything he could have done to even slightly change the course of where events had gone.

He knew that shinobi didn’t just turn on their comrades on a whim- the level of aggression Sasuke had shown didn’t just appear overnight. It had built, day by day, and no one had seen it- or if they had, they just hadn’t done anything. Or maybe they’d tried, or just not known what to do, but either way, the people around them had failed Sasuke. Shino wasn’t absolving him of his decisions, nor of bringing innocent people into his vendetta to get hurt, but had not one person looked at a child who’d seen his family brutally murdered and clearly been on a downward spiral ever since and thought to intervene?

He knew that shinobi didn’t just leave their villages on a whim either- if Naruto felt so pushed to leave, it had to have been building for a while. Shino could remember many times when people around them had treated Naruto unfairly or unjustly. Naruto was an orphan, too, and he’d never had any family at all- why hadn’t anyone other than Iruka reached out to him? He never mentioned any sort of family or friends. Now he was gone, and Shino didn’t know the extent of his injuries, so he couldn’t say it was wrong of him to leave. The village had failed him too.

It was obvious that both of them thought they had no one in their corner or anyone to rely on.

And Shino was just left to wonder, as he visited a crying Hinata curled up on her hospital bed, that for all he’d ever felt hurt that people didn’t see him, _no one_ had seen Naruto or Sasuke when they needed help the most; and he couldn’t imagine feeling like that.

* * *

 

Lee was free with his tears. They streamed down his face and he spoke around the occasional sniffle as he explained to a stunned, bedridden Neji what had happened, or, in his words, how “Naruto-kun has decided that his flames of youth cannot rage here and left to fan them elsewhere.” Even Tenten was a little misty-eyed by the end of his speech.

It was obvious to anyone who looked that Lee had liked Naruto- genuinely liked him. But he had never gotten the chance to truly be his friend, and Gai felt as if it was his fault, even if that was illogical. He couldn’t help but feel that way whenever anything happened to Lee.

He watched them from the hall through the window that looked into Neji’s room with folded arms and a somber expression. Asuma came to stand beside him, an unlit cigarette between his lips that had several nurses giving him dirty looks, and sighed. “I feel like this is all my fault, too,” he said, practically reading Gai’s mind. “I don’t understand it.”

“I do,” Kurenai interjected, voice soft. Asuma raised an eyebrow at her. “Asuma, we’ve been responsible for them since we became jounin sensei. But more than that, we’re all responsible for the next generation. We’re supposed to protect them until they can protect the next.” Her eyes glazed over with sadness as she glanced down the hall where Hinata’s room was. “The fact that two of our kids ended up like this is…” She trailed off.

“It’s on all of us,” Asuma finished for her, grimacing.

* * *

 

Sakura couldn’t stop crying.

Naruto disappearing was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. She’d been anticipating him coming home- looking forward to it- and now she may never see him again.

She didn’t know what she needed to do, but she knew one thing: she couldn’t stay here. She felt like if she did she would sink down into a hole and never get out.

The chuunin at the resignation desk gave her pitying looks. They didn’t even make her take the seal, because she was only a genin of a few months and had never handled any sort of sensitive information whatsoever. She was just another kid who found out that being a shinobi was too hard.

She didn’t know what she was going to do. Thinking of the future scared her, and what she was about to do scared her even further- but she knew she had to do it. Sakura needed to strike out on her own and find out who she was. If she didn’t, she was going to go insane.

She spoke with her parents before she left, ignored their protests, and asked them to explain to her ~~comrades~~ ~~teammates~~ ~~friends~~ acquaintances and tell them why she left. She needed to just _get away_.

The night guard barely looked at her as he signed off on her passport. She wasn’t just giving up her citizenship like Naruto had, but she didn’t know when she would be back.

If ever.

* * *

 

It was pitch black out, and the Hokage’s office was illuminated only by the light of the full moon shining inside. Shizune flipped the light switch and cringed at the sight of Tsunade sat with her head in her hands, several empty sake bottles littered about the desk and floor.

“Tsunade-sama…”

“He’s gone,” Tsunade whispered. Shizune barely heard her even with the deathly quiet of the night and empty building around them. “I can’t believe he’s gone.”

Shizune moved closer, trying to keep her steps quiet and her tone comforting. “You can’t blame yourself.”

Tsunade laughed dryly. “Right. Because I couldn’t have done anything more.” Shizune frowned. “I never should’ve given him that damned necklace.”

Someone knocked on the door. Tsunade glanced at it with a pained grimace.

Shizune hurried over to it and swung it open. Iruka smiled apologetically at her and stepped inside.

“I’m sorry for coming so late, ma’am, but with all the craziness today… well, I needed to deliver this,” he said, holding an envelope with Tsunade’s name written on it. “Naruto sent it to me and told me to wait until the right day to give it to you. He said I’d know. I thought it was for a prank or something, but…”

Tsunade flew out of her seat and snatched the envelope from him. She tore into it and didn’t even notice the papercut it gave her.

“I’ll leave you to it,” Iruka said with a nod as he left, but she paid him no attention.

_Baa-chan,_

_By the time you read this I’ll have left the village. I’m really sorry. I know you’re gonna be pissed at me and really worried, and I really didn’t want to leave you and Iruka-sensei, but I just wasn’t happy there. I didn’t really have a team, or friends, and everyone looked at me like I was something the cat dragged in. I couldn’t even become a teacher. I was never happy. I just felt sad or tired or just really done all the time. I know I may seem really selfish but I just couldn’t take it anymore. But I found somewhere that I am really happy, somewhere that accepts me and I fit in. Somewhere I have friends and people who treat me like family. Someone who really understands what it’s like to be like me. I’m pretty sure you can guess where it is, but I won’t say where so you can pretend not to know for a while._

_Again, I’m really sorry. I hope you forgive me. They told me I did it right, legal and stuff, so I hope I can come back and visit when everything settles down. Maybe stuff’ll be better if I’m staying here and visiting there._

_P.S. can you show this to ero-sennin too? I’d write him one too but I feel like I’d just be repeating this whole thing._

_Love, Naruto_

“Tsunade-sama?”

Tsunade sniffled and wiped her face with her sleeve. “Call back the teams,” she whispered, a tremor in her voice. Shizune furrowed her eyebrows at her. “It’s fine. I know. Just…call the search off. We aren’t going to find him.”

Even if they did, she knew it would just make Naruto unhappy to drag him back to the village. Technically, it wasn’t the most legal thing to do anyway.

She had to let him go.

 _I hope you’re happy, kid. Wherever you end up_.

* * *

 

“What do you mean she left?”

“She left. She resigned and left the village.”

“But- but she’s-”

“You know kids who pass the exam are automatically emancipated, even if they resign. Look, Kakashi…I know this is a lot, but you look tired, all right? Get some rest. Go home.”

* * *

 

Iruka rubbed at his eyes and tried not to run into his table as he stumbled to his door. He squinted at his clock as he tied his robe, and would have tried to sense who it was waking him up at five o’clock in the morning if he wasn’t so tired.

He opened up his door and paused. Kakashi stood there, looking like a piece of waste the family dog had drug in; he was pale and looked sick, his hair was ruffled, and he stood with a perpetual slouch. “Kakashi?”

“They’re gone,” the man told him, his one visible eye shining with moisture. “Iruka, they’re- they’re all gone.”

It didn’t take rocket science to figure out what he meant.

“Sakura-?”

“Left. I…I don’t know where she went.” Kakashi drooped even further. “I don’t…I…”

“God. Come, come on now,” Iruka said, wrapping a hand around the jounin’s arm and herding him inside. “My spare’s still got everything in it from last time you were here. Here, sit down. It’s going to be all right, Kakashi.”

He guided the unresponsive man towards the couch and draped a blanket over his shoulders. He kept on staring at the coffee table, looking lost.

Iruka thought of the letters in his bedroom. The way he’d told Temari what times to go to what offices when he was sure younger chuunin were on duty. The way Baki had written him constantly over the month Naruto was in Suna, telling him about all the ways the blond was happy that he’d never been in Konoha. How readily Naruto had fled Konoha when he had the chance. _~~How much he should have noticed~~_ ~~.~~

He looked at Kakashi, and repeated it just as much to assure himself as the other shinobi. “It’s going to be all right.”

* * *

 

Freedom.

The desert was cold- freezing- during the night, but Naruto had enough spare energy to compensate. It would still take about a day or two of travel to reach Suna, but he’d reached the Land of Wind and every step forward he took meant a step further away from Konoha and its reach. An almost panicky energy spurred him on, urging him to go faster; he wasn’t going to be stopping or resting anywhere until he got to the village and had its walls around him.

Even with his anxiousness and mild panic, however, he still couldn’t get over how free he felt.

Suna was the village he’d chosen. He hadn’t been born into it and forced to serve it because he had never known anything else. It already felt more like home- and even though it would feel strange, at first, staying permanently, he was sure it would soon _be_ home as sure as Konoha had once been.

Someday, he would go on missions to foreign countries _(Konoha would be a foreign village)_ and come back home. To Suna.

Someday he would go on errands out into the desert with other ninja, to gather cacti or herbs or rare minerals, and crack jokes about their latest prank on Kankuro, and come back home. To Suna.

Someday, he would be a jounin who was proud to protect his home.

His future was right in front of him. He ran faster, ignoring the burn in his legs.

He hadn’t felt this happy in a long time.

He looked up at the night sky as he ran and grinned. The stars were hard to see from his apartment in Konoha, but he could see them all clearly in the desert. They twinkled down at him and framed the moon lovingly in their grasp, and he looked for the constellations Iruka had shown him as a child as he went.

Elsewhere, his two teammates looked up at the same night sky, each of them fleeing in different directions- Naruto, to the southwest, to Suna; Sasuke, to the north, to Otogakure; and Sakura, to the east, towards the Land of Water. Two of them looked at the stars with anguish and pain, and the last looked at it with a laugh as he bounded over the sand dunes while their sensei could only stare at the stars from the window in Iruka’s apartment and wonder where they all were.

Their paths would cross again, someday. Until then, they all had to walk alone.


End file.
